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A Postmodern Love Story How Romance Scammers Exploit the Online Dating Experience Through Simulated Love

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A Postmodern Love Story How Romance Scammers Exploit the Online Dating Experience Through Simulated Love A Postmodern Love Story How Romance Scammers Exploit the Online Dating Experience Through Simulated Love The text messages above are copies of real messages sent by multiple romance scammers to the researcher and two participants. A Postmodern Love Story How Romance Scammers Exploit the Online Dating Experience Through Simulated Love Master Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance Department of Global Criminology Cohort: 2019-2020 Date: 10-02-2021 First reader & supervisor: Dr. E. Krsmanovic Second reader: Dr. A.E. Laskai Hester Smeitink 5913241 [email protected] 2 Preface Before introducing you to my exciting topic, I would like to take a step back and reflect on what this process meant to me personally. I did this research and wrote this thesis in circumstances I had never faced before. I was grieving the loss of a parent, immigrating to another country, and like every person reading this, facing the consequences of a global pandemic. In fact, as I am writing this very paragraph, Austria is in a three week long ‘hard’ lockdown, which means that I am spending almost all of my time inside the four walls of my apartment. Throughout this strange time, this project formed a red threat, as it became a pleasant, constant factor in my life. There were always new ideas and connections to explore, new ways to improve my work, and new goals and deadlines to work towards. This helped me navigate these strange months. Nevertheless, doing qualitative research during a pandemic, a time during which we are told to avoid social contact, proved to be quite difficult. When it became impossible to pursue my original research topic in March, I looked into netnography and crimes that predominantly take place online. When I stumbled upon the online dating scam, a largely underexplored cybercrime, I decided to go for it. I was immediately drawn to the emotional aspect of the crime, as I realized that these scammers were not only after people’s money, but also after their hearts. Throughout these last months, I found myself inspired and motivated by every new story that was shared with me about this particular scam. Luckily for me, I found great respondents, who were so kind to give me their time and knowledge. For this, I am extremely thankful, because I fully realize that without them there would be no stories, no research, and no thesis. But as multiple participants told me: you have to experience being romantically scammed to truly understand it. I still hold this to be true, although I think, or sincerely hope, that I came close to uncovering their truths. As an anthropologist and criminologist, I namely always strive to make the unfamiliar familiar, to collaborate with my participants, and to let their stories guide me. Besides my respondents I am also thankful for those who helped me during this process. I would firstly like to thank my boyfriend, who is likely somewhat of an expert on the topic himself by now. He always listened to my worries and ideas and motivated me to keep going. Also a big thank you to Laura, my fellow anthropologist/criminologist in the making/thesis- buddy, with whom I exchanged many, many voice messages and phone calls. Without her these months would not have been as fun and productive as they were. Lastly, I would like to thank 3 my supervisor, Dr. Elena Krsmanovic. Her insight and knowledge pushed me to explore new concepts and to find new lenses through which I could look at my data. Her input truly improved the quality of this thesis and I remain inspired by her passion for cultural criminology. For those reading this who are not my respondents, I hope that by reading this thesis your interests are sparked as much as mine when I (first) learned about the online romance scam. For my respondents, I hope you can recognize the things you taught me, and that I did you justice in my honest endeavour to translate your experiences into something of cultural criminological meaning. Enjoy reading! 4 Index 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................7 1.1 Social & Scientific Relevance ...................................................................................................9 1.2 Research Question ................................................................................................................... 12 1.3 Overview of the Thesis ............................................................................................................ 13 2. Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 15 2.1 Direction of the Research ........................................................................................................ 15 2.2 Quality of the Data .................................................................................................................. 16 2.3 Research Site........................................................................................................................... 16 2.4 Research Methods: The Interview............................................................................................ 18 2.5 Research Methods: Digital Ethnography .................................................................................. 19 2.5.1 Participant Observation..................................................................................................... 19 2.5.2 Catfish Connie .................................................................................................................. 20 2.5.3 Visual Content Analysis ................................................................................................... 21 2.5.4 Spatial Mapping ............................................................................................................... 22 2.6 Research Sample: Respondents & Experts ............................................................................... 22 2.7 Ethical Considerations: Covert Research, Informed Consent & Giving Back ........................... 26 3. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 29 3.1 Cultural Criminology & Postmodernity ................................................................................... 29 3.2 Hyperreality & Online Dating Scams....................................................................................... 31 3.3 Commodification & Online Dating Scams ............................................................................... 33 3.3.1 The Perfect Lens for Online Dating Scams ........................................................................ 35 3.4 Previous Research on Postmodernity & Online Dating ............................................................ 36 3.5 Criminology & Cybercrime ..................................................................................................... 37 3.6 The Anatomy of the Scam ....................................................................................................... 38 3.7 The Hyper Personal Model ...................................................................................................... 41 4. Empirical Chapter ..................................................................................................................... 44 The Functioning of the Online Romance Scam & its Exploitative Nature .......................................... 44 4.1 Whitty’s Model & Motivations to meet Online ........................................................................ 45 4.2 The (Not So) Ideal Profile ....................................................................................................... 46 4.3 The Grooming Process: The Ideal Partner ................................................................................ 47 4.4 The Grooming Process: Conversation & Isolation.................................................................... 49 4.5 The Grooming Process: Putting the ‘Romance’ in Romance Scam ........................................... 50 4.6 The Crisis ................................................................................................................................ 51 4.7 Sexual Abuse & Revictimization ............................................................................................. 52 4.8 The Smeitink Model ................................................................................................................ 54 5 4.9 Exploitation............................................................................................................................. 57 4.9.1 Exploitation: The Emotional ‘Hit.’ .................................................................................... 58 4.9.2 Exploitation: The Financial ‘Hit.’ ..................................................................................... 59 4.9.3 Exploitation: Additional Harms ........................................................................................ 61 4.9.4 Exploitation: The Story of R8 ........................................................................................... 61 5. Empirical chapter ...................................................................................................................... 63 Creating a Simulation of Love........................................................................................................... 63 5.1
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