Dr Jack Whittaker

Advance fee and non-delivery frauds have become very common with the growing preference for online shopping and the new opportunities this brings for online offenders. This article uses unique access to a volunteer group’s database focused on preventing pet scams to explore this type of crime. Distances, among other factors, make the purchase of pets online common in countries such as the USA, Australia and South Africa. This modality of purchase has been exploited by organized criminals largely based in Cameroon to conduct advance fee and non-delivery frauds. The article uses data from the volunteer group Petscams.com to provide unique insights on the techniques of the offenders with particular reference to the strategies used to maximize victimization by using real accounts of victims of such frauds. It also briefly notes how the COVID-19 crisis has been used to adapt this type of scam. The article’s discussion identifies the need for a more nuanced assessment into the role of victim oriented voluntary organizations.

Online crimes such as frauds have grown substantially in volume over the last 20 years, with the associated changes in technology such as the internet and use of email. The state response through the police has lagged in many countries with law enforcement often struggling to cope with the volume and new challenges of such crimes. Private policing has traditionally filled the gap through commercial forms where clients are willing to pay through to voluntary actions such as vigilantism. Cybercrime has not escaped such outcomes with a growing voluntary sector responding to such crimes. In doing so there have been a wide range of such responses ranging from vigilantism through to state supported initiatives. This paper seeks to chart this voluntary response and in doing so conceptulizes it through three waves of voluntarism.

Online shopping has now become very common, with consumers increasingly opting to purchase products on the World Wide Web instead of visiting traditional “bricks and mortar” stores, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has, however, also provided significant opportunities for offenders to abuse the inherent trust-based nature of online shopping, whereby consumers typically do not see the products physically prior to purchasing them. As such, this article sets out to examine the actions and behaviors that individuals take to prevent online shopping fraud and what, if any, discrepancy exists between prevention messaging and consumer behavior. To accomplish this, the study utilizes secondary survey data (n = 3478 respondents) obtained from a private-sector initiative called ScamAdviser. The results find that many respondents do not use appropriate behaviors to reduce their risk when shopping online and that furthermore there is reason to believe that consumers are not served well by the online safety advice that they are given. The paper argues that there is scope to increase guardianship through better prevention advice being communicated to online shoppers.

We aimed to identify the critical insights from empirical peer-reviewed studies on online romance fraud published between 2000 and 2021 through a systematic literature review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol. The corpus of studies that met our inclusion criteria comprised twenty-six studies employing qualitative (n = 13), quantitative (n = 11), and mixed (n = 2) methods. Most studies focused on victims, with eight focusing on offenders and fewer investigating public perspectives. All the victim-focused studies relied on data from the Global North, except for Malaysia. Five offender-focused studies used online data available in the public domain, and three derived their data from West Africa. Our review highlights offenders' techniques to deceive and manipulate victims, as revealed in these studies, and highlights some limitations of offender- and victim-focused studies. The dominant framework used across the studies was found to be the “Scammers Persuasive Techniques Model.” While this framework provides a helpful way of considering the stages of victim involvement, it also faces some limitations, which we highlight. Our study reviews the current state of empirical knowledge on romance fraud and identifies certain gaps and biases in the literature. We argue there is a need for further research into online romance fraud to enhance our understanding of it both from the perspective of the offender as well as the experience of the victim. We also highlight the need for a more inclusive and greater range of regional and global diverse range of data sources and perspectives. Given the scale and impact of online romance fraud, we conclude that its study would benefit from a richer empirical engagement that recognizes it as both a regional and global phenomenon.

This is a theoretical treatment of the term "Sha Zhu Pan" (杀猪盘) in Chinese, which translates to “Pig-Butchering” in English. The article critically examines the propagation and validation of "Pig Butchering," an animal metaphor, and its implications for the dehumanisation of victims of online fraud across various discourses. The study provides background information about this type of fraud before investigating its theoretical foundations and linking its emergence to the dehumanisation of fraud victims. The analysis highlights the disparity between academic literature, subjected to rigorous peer-review processes, and sensationalised narratives prevalent in the media. While academic works subject "pig butchering" to critical scrutiny and refrain from endorsing derogatory terms to depict fraud victims, numerous media outlets employ this term uncritically, further worsening the predicament of these victims. "Pig butchering" is firmly rooted in the concept of dehumanisation, and this article underscores how language moulds perceptions of fraud and behaviour, extending to the development of preventive strategies. The role of law enforcement agencies in generating and disseminating materials is also a central theme, emphasising their responsibility as trusted sources of information. We suggest that these agencies should adopt non-victim shaming language to encourage victims to report crimes and alleviate the stigma attached to victimisation. Additionally, the article offers valuable cross-cultural insights by comparing metaphors from Chinese and Nigerian contexts. This comparative analysis enriches our comprehension of the global dimensions of online fraud and its cultural diversities, highlighting the substantial impact of language on perceptions and behaviours. We advocate for a departure from victim-blaming tendencies perpetuated by select media outlets, urging a more compassionate and accurate portrayal of those affected by online fraud. We, therefore, call for a more empathetic and accurate portrayal of individuals affected by online fraud, aligning with the broader objective of promoting understanding and support for these victims.

The internet has revolutionised retail sales, with online shopping a common practice globally. While convenient, offenders have also embraced the opportunity to target potential victims and their shopping carts. Online shopping fraud occurs when offenders represent themselves as legitimate online sellers to gain sales from unsuspecting victims, both by impersonating genuine retailers and creating fictional retailers with non-existent products. The current article explores the victimisation and near misses of consumers to online shopping fraud. Based on survey responses of 1011 Australians, the article examines the online shopping activities of individuals as well as any victimisation or near miss experiences. The results indicate a high level of victimisation and near misses across this sample. It further examines a range of impacts experienced by these consumers and considers the implications of these results for the retail sector and prevention practices into the future.

This study explores the experiences and challenges faced by Cameroonian website developers involved in creating non-delivery fraud websites. Through semi-structured interviews with 14 developers, four key themes were identified: (1) the psychological impact of the Ambazonian crisis, including heightened stress and anxiety due to ongoing civil conflict; (2) infrastructure disruptions, such as frequent power outages and Internet blackouts, which hinder their work and increase operational risks; (3) the influence of spiritual beliefs on decision-making, where concerns about offending ancestral spirits deter developers from direct fraud involvement; and (4) cultural perceptions of cybercrime, particularly the glorification of the “Big Boy” image, which normalises fraudulent activities as symbols of success. The study suggests that redirecting these developers’ skills towards legitimate tech employment opportunities in Cameroon and internationally could help reduce cyber deviance and contribute to economic growth in affected regions.

Online shopping fraud has become very common with the growing preference for the public to shop online. The current academic literature on this type of fraud is limited in scope, focusing broadly on the prevalence of online shopping fraud and what actions and behaviours consumers take to avoid being victimised in this type of fraud. This thesis takes a novel approach, by focusing more upon how online shopping fraud is enabled. To accomplish this, a new conceptual framework of criminal enablement is proposed, by arguing that enablement comprises of ‘active’ and ‘passive’ elements. The concept of ‘active enablement’ is then applied in a case-study analysis of an under analysed type of online shopping fraud – the ‘pet scam’. The crux of this thesis focuses on a qualitative sample (n=14) of deviant website developers located in Cameroon who enable the fraud by building these fraudulent websites. The results begin by setting four themes of technical enablement revealed in the interviews. The first finds that the website developers value speed over quality by using content management systems and that they often steal content from legitimate websites when they build fraudulent websites for their clients. The second theme identifies that the website developers build a range of fraudulent websites for their clients which are broadly intended to take advantage of supply and demand factors in the legitimate economy. The third theme provides insight into marketing and trust. It shows how the website developers do not trust their clients and, in order prevent themselves from being defrauded, use a range of loss mitigation techniques. The fourth theme provides insight into money laundering. The results then go on to set out five key social factors behind the website developers’ decision to actively enable online shopping fraud. The first theme identified describes how the website developers argue that they have been ‘pushed’ into undertaking this type of work because of the ongoing civil war in Cameroon. The second theme provides insight into the legitimate work that the website developers undertake and shows why they find this type of work unattractive. The third and fourth themes outline why they have chosen not to become fraudsters themselves. The issue of poor public perception of fraudsters and the targeting of fraudsters by the local police provides one justification. The website developers’ negative perceptions of ‘black magic’ and spiritualism provides another. The fifth theme explores the lucrative revenues website developers can generate by offering their services to fraudsters. The themes and issues identified in the analysis illustrate how the concept of ‘active enablement’ is complex, comprising of both technical and social factors. The reflections and conclusions chapter summarises the findings and offers a further contribution to the understanding of online fraud. It argues that there is a far wider landscape of culpable actors who passively enable online fraud through their negligence. The thesis concludes by suggesting that it is only through better educating both fraudsters and fraud prevention agents about the enablement of fraud that it can better controlled.