Suleman Lazaru
Biographic Data
| ID | 285649 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Suleman Lazaru |
| GIVEN NAMES | Suleman |
| FAMILY NAME | Lazaru |
| SIGNATURE | LAZARU S |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1721-8519 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 94 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Strait of Hormuz: The Geopolitical to Cybercrime Cascade Framework and the 2026 US-Israel-Iran Conflict
War rarely stays contained; like dominoes, its effects can fall far beyond the battlefield. This conceptual paper develops the Geopolitical to Cybercrime Cascade Framework (GCCF) to explain how geopolitical conflict may generate downstream civilian cybercrime vulnerability in noncombatant settings. Weaving together insights from cybercrime research, hybrid warfare scholarship, and critical infrastructure studies, the framework shows how supply ch…
Malware as a Service in Human Trafficking Operations at a Scam Compound: Cybercrime Infrastructure and Forced Labor as Structurally Interdependent
Industrial-scale online fraud in Southeast Asia increasingly depends on advanced malware and forced labor. This brief report presents a secondary documentary analysis of publicly available cybersecurity and investigative sources. It applies a human trafficking framework to technical evidence. The primary source is an investigation by Infoblox and Chong Lua Dao, corroborated by (i) The Economist and (ii) the Cyber Scam Monitor profile of K99 Trium…
“UnderKingdom”, Enslavement Simulation, and the Normalization of Human Trafficking and Scam Compound Culture in Southeast Asia
This paper argues that Scam Center Simulator: UnderKingdom trivializes victim harm and dehumanizes trafficked persons. It normalizes offender identity within a documented and ongoing crisis. I examine these design features against Southeast Asia’s scam compound phenomenon. I adopt a viewpoint approach. The primary source is the developer’s public representation of game mechanics on Steam. This is supplemented by firsthand observation of available…
Online shopping fraud website production: An exploratory study of the mechanics of fraud
Purpose Online non-delivery fraud has expanded rapidly alongside the growth of e-commerce. The actors who technically enable this crime remain understudied. This paper aims to examine deviant website developers involved in producing fraudulent online shopping websites. It focuses specifically on websites used in “pet scams” and how socio-technical mechanisms sustain this type of fraud. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on qualitative da…
Space transition theory and its empirical applications in cybercrime research: A PRISMA-guided systematic review (2007 to 2025)
A reflexive performance of caution in a cryptocurrency fraud encounter
Evolutionary fraud, the global scamming ecosystem and a typology of actors
This study examines the adaptive nature of the global scamming ecosystem, focusing on developing a novel typology based on the size and organizational structure of scam operations. Through a combination of qualitative and case study analysis, the research categorizes scammers into five distinct groups, namely, “Demons,” “Gorgons,” “Ogres,” “Behemoths,” and “Mega Behemoths,” ranging from lone actors to large-scale enterprises with intricate hierar…
A crime script perspective on mapping the entry, continuation, and exit pathways of online romance fraud
Online romance fraud has received increasing scholarly and policy attention due to its socioeconomic and psychological consequences. While prior research has examined the technical, psychological, and structural conditions that enable these scams, far less is known about the temporal and behavioural processes that shape how individuals enter, sustain, and exit them. This study addresses that gap using qualitative data from publicly available cour…
What Do We Know About Human Trafficking and Scam Compounds in Southeast Asia (2020–2025)? A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis of Coercive Deviant Enterprises
This study synthesizes peer-reviewed research on human trafficking linked to scam compounds in Southeast Asia (2020 to 2025) to understand their organizational, spatial, and coercive infrastructures. Applying a Qualitative Meta-Synthesis (QMS) protocol, it integrates findings from fifty publications. These outputs comprise forty-five journal articles, three conference papers, one book chapter, and one monograph. As a consolidated evidentiary base…
Afrobeats, Moral Disengagement and the Cultural Politics of Online Fraud: The Difference Between a Twitch and a Wink Is Vast
This article examines how Afrobeats reframes online fraud through mechanisms of moral disengagement, interrogating 40 songs by Nigerian artists (2023 to 2025). Drawing on Bandura's theory and cultural sociology, it interprets lyrics as moral texts. Thematically, it identifies five recurrent patterns: (i) victim dehumanisation through predator-prey metaphors (e.g., maga), (ii) reframing fraud as “hustle” or divine blessing, (iii) minimisation of a…
Advancing sociological understanding of felt and enacted stigma through the experience of mothers raising children with disabilities in Nigeria
A longstanding sociological tradition of stigma research has highlighted its salience and consequences, both for children with disabilities and their parents. Yet, while it is recognised that forms of stigma are embedded in structural conditions and social context, understanding of how disability-related stigma plays out is overwhelmingly restricted to high-income countries. This is despite the fact that the prevalence of child disability is high…
Africa, my home: What shadow of home remains
After the colonial termites entered our homes,they couldn’t leave us alone!Gold, iron ore, copper, diamonds,potash, phosphate, cobalt, platinum. Oh, my home!Home, what home?Home, a place that no lo...
Nigerian confraternities and mass cross-border fraud
Nigeria is well-known for its significant problem with criminal actors who commit industrial-scale online fraud and related crimes, predominantly targeting foreign nationals and businesses. However, the structures and characteristics of those involved remain less understood. A key area of debate concerns the degree of organization among these perpetrators and their affiliation with organized crime groups. A specific focus of this debate is the in…
The Weaponization of Football Dreams in Human Trafficking Schemes
This Brief Report highlights how football (i.e. soccer) dreams are weaponized to traffic youth within West Africa. Framed as an athletic opportunity, the operation exploited the Economic Community of West African States’ visa-free protocols, digital platforms, and the powerful appeal of sport-based mobility. Victims were confined, stripped of documentation, and coerced into soliciting funds from family members, with their phones repurposed to per…
What is Scholar-Baiting? When the Watcher is Watched, and the Social Engineering Attacks on Scholars
I write from the dual position of witness and analyst, using autoethnography to examine a scholar-targeted form of social engineering. The scammers baited me, mimicking academic language, citing published work, and deploying emotionally charged narratives to elicit trust and ethical engagement. From this dual role, I introduce two emergent constructs (“ scholar-baiting ” and “ document staging ”) to describe how epistemic trust and narrative craf…
Pulpit, power, and predation: "Yahoo Men of God," prosperity theology, and the Twin Fraud Triangles
We analyse public discourse on pastors' unethical financial exploitation within the charismatic Christian community. Using qualitative content analysis of social-media responses, we examine how the public perceives, discusses, and interprets these cases, privileging emic viewpoints. We find that faith leaders are seen to exploit congregants' social trust and spiritual devotion for personal gain. Grounded in Donald Cressey's Fraud Triangle theory,…
Pathways, Pressure, and Profit: Adaptive Innovation and Strain in a Convicted Cybercrime Academy Called Hustle Kingdom
Love, Lies, and Larceny: One Hundred Convicted Case Files of Cybercriminals with Eighty Involving Online Romance Fraud
Assessing Human Trafficking and Cybercrime Intersections Through Survivor Narratives
Fraud as Legitimate Retribution for Colonial Injustice: Neutralization Techniques in Interviews with Police and Online Romance Fraud Offenders
Cybercriminal Networks and Operational Dynamics of Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scammers: Insights from the 'Black Axe' Confraternity
I explored the relationship between the "Black Axe" Confraternity and cybercrime, with a particular emphasis on the structural dynamics of the Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes. I investigated whether a conventional hierarchical system governs the membership and remuneration for BEC roles as perpetrators by interviewing an accused "leader" of the "Black Axe" affiliated cybercriminal incarcerated in a prominent Western nation. I supplemented…
An assessment of convicted cryptocurrency fraudsters
We examine cryptocurrency fraud cases prosecuted by Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). We considered the lens of the Space Transition Theory (STT) in exploring the dynamics of these digital crimes. Our data analysis reveals common types of fraud, including cryptocurrency investment schemes. The results show an exclusive male demographic (100%), with the majority under 30 years old and only a quarter possessing a degree, pr…
An Autoethnographic Perspective on Scholarly Impact, Citation Politics, and North–South Power Dynamics
Citations signal the significance and impact of publication outputs, conferring prestige within an academic prestige economy. The longstanding academic mandate to ‘publish or perish’ has been married with the modern expectation to ‘demonstrate impact or perish,’ reflecting an evolution in scholarly priorities and imposing a ‘double burden’ on scholars, particularly on early-career researchers and marginalised voices. I examine factors influencing…
Tweets and Reactions: Revealing the Geographies of Cybercrime Perpetrators and the North-South Divide
How do tweets reflect the long-standing disparities between the northern and southern regions of Nigeria? This study presents a qualitative analysis of Twitter users' responses ( n = 101,518) to the tweets of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) regarding the production and prosecution of cybercrime. The article uses postcolonial perspectives to shed light on the legacies of British colonial efforts in Nigeria, such as the amalgama…
Demonstrating the Therapeutic Values of Poetry in Doctoral Research: Autoethnographic Steps from the Enchanted Forest to a PhD by Publication Path
We rarely acknowledge the achievements of doctoral candidates who fought with all they had but still lost the battle and dropped out - we know so little about what becomes of them. This reflective article is about the betrayals of PhD supervisors in one institution, the trauma and stigma of withdrawing from that institution, writing poetry as a coping mechanism and the triumph in completing a Thesis by Publication (TBP) in another institution. Th…
Where Is the Money? The Intersectionality of the Spirit World and the Acquisition of Wealth
This article is a theoretical treatment of the ways in which local worldviews on wealth acquisition give rise to contemporary manifestations of spirituality in cyberspace. It unpacks spiritual (occult) economies and wealth generation through a historical perspective. The article 'devil advocates' the 'sainthood' of claimed law-abiding citizens, by highlighting that the line dividing them and the Nigerian cybercriminals (Yahoo-Boys) is blurred wit…
Cybercriminal Networks and Operational Dynamics of Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scammers: Insights from the 'Black Axe' Confraternity
I explored the relationship between the "Black Axe" Confraternity and cybercrime, with a particular emphasis on the structural dynamics of the Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes. I investigated whether a conventional hierarchical system governs the membership and remuneration for BEC roles as perpetrators by interviewing an accused "leader" of the "Black Axe" affiliated cybercriminal incarcerated in a prominent Western nation. I supplemented…
Fraud as Legitimate Retribution for Colonial Injustice: Neutralization Techniques in Interviews with Police and Online Romance Fraud Offenders
Love, Lies, and Larceny: One Hundred Convicted Case Files of Cybercriminals with Eighty Involving Online Romance Fraud
Gendered Penalties of Divorce on Remarriage in Nigeria: A Qualitative Study
Seeking the views of metropolitan, university educated Nigerians in Lagos and Abuja (the previous and current capital cities respectively), our study explores gendered perspectives on the issue of remarriage after divorce to gain a deeper understanding of how customary, Islamic and statutory laws intersect. We build on previous studies (e.g. Therborn, 2004) to highlight that from the 1930s onwards, marital aspects of modern customary laws may be …
Pathways, Pressure, and Profit: Adaptive Innovation and Strain in a Convicted Cybercrime Academy Called Hustle Kingdom
Just married: The synergy between feminist criminology and the Tripartite Cybercrime Framework
This article is a theoretical treatment of feminist epistemology of crime, which advocates the centrality of gender as a theoretical starting point for the investigating of digital crimes. It does so by exploring the synergy between the feminist perspectives and the Tripartite Cybercrime Framework (TCF) (which argues that three possible factors motivate cybercrimes - socioeconomic, psychosocial, and geopolitical) to critique mainstream criminolog…
Troubling' Chastisement: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Child Punishment in Ghana and Ireland
This article reviews an epochal change in international thinking about physical punishment of children from being a reasonable method of chastisement to one that is harmful to children and troubling to families. In addition, the article suggests shifts in thinking about physical punishment were originally pioneered as part and parcel of the dismantling of national laws granting fathers' specific rights to admonish children under conventions of pa…
Assessing Human Trafficking and Cybercrime Intersections Through Survivor Narratives
Demonstrating the Therapeutic Values of Poetry in Doctoral Research: Autoethnographic Steps from the Enchanted Forest to a PhD by Publication Path
We rarely acknowledge the achievements of doctoral candidates who fought with all they had but still lost the battle and dropped out - we know so little about what becomes of them. This reflective article is about the betrayals of PhD supervisors in one institution, the trauma and stigma of withdrawing from that institution, writing poetry as a coping mechanism and the triumph in completing a Thesis by Publication (TBP) in another institution. Th…
The Weaponization of Football Dreams in Human Trafficking Schemes
This Brief Report highlights how football (i.e. soccer) dreams are weaponized to traffic youth within West Africa. Framed as an athletic opportunity, the operation exploited the Economic Community of West African States’ visa-free protocols, digital platforms, and the powerful appeal of sport-based mobility. Victims were confined, stripped of documentation, and coerced into soliciting funds from family members, with their phones repurposed to per…
Pulpit, power, and predation: "Yahoo Men of God," prosperity theology, and the Twin Fraud Triangles
We analyse public discourse on pastors' unethical financial exploitation within the charismatic Christian community. Using qualitative content analysis of social-media responses, we examine how the public perceives, discusses, and interprets these cases, privileging emic viewpoints. We find that faith leaders are seen to exploit congregants' social trust and spiritual devotion for personal gain. Grounded in Donald Cressey's Fraud Triangle theory,…
Evolutionary fraud, the global scamming ecosystem and a typology of actors
This study examines the adaptive nature of the global scamming ecosystem, focusing on developing a novel typology based on the size and organizational structure of scam operations. Through a combination of qualitative and case study analysis, the research categorizes scammers into five distinct groups, namely, “Demons,” “Gorgons,” “Ogres,” “Behemoths,” and “Mega Behemoths,” ranging from lone actors to large-scale enterprises with intricate hierar…
What Do We Know About Human Trafficking and Scam Compounds in Southeast Asia (2020–2025)? A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis of Coercive Deviant Enterprises
This study synthesizes peer-reviewed research on human trafficking linked to scam compounds in Southeast Asia (2020 to 2025) to understand their organizational, spatial, and coercive infrastructures. Applying a Qualitative Meta-Synthesis (QMS) protocol, it integrates findings from fifty publications. These outputs comprise forty-five journal articles, three conference papers, one book chapter, and one monograph. As a consolidated evidentiary base…
Afrobeats, Moral Disengagement and the Cultural Politics of Online Fraud: The Difference Between a Twitch and a Wink Is Vast
This article examines how Afrobeats reframes online fraud through mechanisms of moral disengagement, interrogating 40 songs by Nigerian artists (2023 to 2025). Drawing on Bandura's theory and cultural sociology, it interprets lyrics as moral texts. Thematically, it identifies five recurrent patterns: (i) victim dehumanisation through predator-prey metaphors (e.g., maga), (ii) reframing fraud as “hustle” or divine blessing, (iii) minimisation of a…
What is Scholar-Baiting? When the Watcher is Watched, and the Social Engineering Attacks on Scholars
I write from the dual position of witness and analyst, using autoethnography to examine a scholar-targeted form of social engineering. The scammers baited me, mimicking academic language, citing published work, and deploying emotionally charged narratives to elicit trust and ethical engagement. From this dual role, I introduce two emergent constructs (“ scholar-baiting ” and “ document staging ”) to describe how epistemic trust and narrative craf…
An Autoethnographic Perspective on Scholarly Impact, Citation Politics, and North–South Power Dynamics
Citations signal the significance and impact of publication outputs, conferring prestige within an academic prestige economy. The longstanding academic mandate to ‘publish or perish’ has been married with the modern expectation to ‘demonstrate impact or perish,’ reflecting an evolution in scholarly priorities and imposing a ‘double burden’ on scholars, particularly on early-career researchers and marginalised voices. I examine factors influencing…
Gendered Penalties of Divorce on Remarriage in Nigeria: A Qualitative Study
Seeking the views of metropolitan, university educated Nigerians in Lagos and Abuja (the previous and current capital cities respectively), our study explores gendered perspectives on the issue of remarriage after divorce to gain a deeper understanding of how customary, Islamic and statutory laws intersect. We build on previous studies (e.g. Therborn, 2004) to highlight that from the 1930s onwards, marital aspects of modern customary laws may be …
Troubling' Chastisement: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Child Punishment in Ghana and Ireland
This article reviews an epochal change in international thinking about physical punishment of children from being a reasonable method of chastisement to one that is harmful to children and troubling to families. In addition, the article suggests shifts in thinking about physical punishment were originally pioneered as part and parcel of the dismantling of national laws granting fathers' specific rights to admonish children under conventions of pa…
Just married: The synergy between feminist criminology and the Tripartite Cybercrime Framework
This article is a theoretical treatment of feminist epistemology of crime, which advocates the centrality of gender as a theoretical starting point for the investigating of digital crimes. It does so by exploring the synergy between the feminist perspectives and the Tripartite Cybercrime Framework (TCF) (which argues that three possible factors motivate cybercrimes - socioeconomic, psychosocial, and geopolitical) to critique mainstream criminolog…
Where Is the Money? The Intersectionality of the Spirit World and the Acquisition of Wealth
This article is a theoretical treatment of the ways in which local worldviews on wealth acquisition give rise to contemporary manifestations of spirituality in cyberspace. It unpacks spiritual (occult) economies and wealth generation through a historical perspective. The article 'devil advocates' the 'sainthood' of claimed law-abiding citizens, by highlighting that the line dividing them and the Nigerian cybercriminals (Yahoo-Boys) is blurred wit…
Demonstrating the Therapeutic Values of Poetry in Doctoral Research: Autoethnographic Steps from the Enchanted Forest to a PhD by Publication Path
We rarely acknowledge the achievements of doctoral candidates who fought with all they had but still lost the battle and dropped out - we know so little about what becomes of them. This reflective article is about the betrayals of PhD supervisors in one institution, the trauma and stigma of withdrawing from that institution, writing poetry as a coping mechanism and the triumph in completing a Thesis by Publication (TBP) in another institution. Th…
Tweets and Reactions: Revealing the Geographies of Cybercrime Perpetrators and the North-South Divide
How do tweets reflect the long-standing disparities between the northern and southern regions of Nigeria? This study presents a qualitative analysis of Twitter users' responses ( n = 101,518) to the tweets of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) regarding the production and prosecution of cybercrime. The article uses postcolonial perspectives to shed light on the legacies of British colonial efforts in Nigeria, such as the amalgama…
An assessment of convicted cryptocurrency fraudsters
We examine cryptocurrency fraud cases prosecuted by Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). We considered the lens of the Space Transition Theory (STT) in exploring the dynamics of these digital crimes. Our data analysis reveals common types of fraud, including cryptocurrency investment schemes. The results show an exclusive male demographic (100%), with the majority under 30 years old and only a quarter possessing a degree, pr…
An Autoethnographic Perspective on Scholarly Impact, Citation Politics, and North–South Power Dynamics
Citations signal the significance and impact of publication outputs, conferring prestige within an academic prestige economy. The longstanding academic mandate to ‘publish or perish’ has been married with the modern expectation to ‘demonstrate impact or perish,’ reflecting an evolution in scholarly priorities and imposing a ‘double burden’ on scholars, particularly on early-career researchers and marginalised voices. I examine factors influencing…
Nigerian confraternities and mass cross-border fraud
Nigeria is well-known for its significant problem with criminal actors who commit industrial-scale online fraud and related crimes, predominantly targeting foreign nationals and businesses. However, the structures and characteristics of those involved remain less understood. A key area of debate concerns the degree of organization among these perpetrators and their affiliation with organized crime groups. A specific focus of this debate is the in…
The Weaponization of Football Dreams in Human Trafficking Schemes
This Brief Report highlights how football (i.e. soccer) dreams are weaponized to traffic youth within West Africa. Framed as an athletic opportunity, the operation exploited the Economic Community of West African States’ visa-free protocols, digital platforms, and the powerful appeal of sport-based mobility. Victims were confined, stripped of documentation, and coerced into soliciting funds from family members, with their phones repurposed to per…
What is Scholar-Baiting? When the Watcher is Watched, and the Social Engineering Attacks on Scholars
I write from the dual position of witness and analyst, using autoethnography to examine a scholar-targeted form of social engineering. The scammers baited me, mimicking academic language, citing published work, and deploying emotionally charged narratives to elicit trust and ethical engagement. From this dual role, I introduce two emergent constructs (“ scholar-baiting ” and “ document staging ”) to describe how epistemic trust and narrative craf…
Pulpit, power, and predation: "Yahoo Men of God," prosperity theology, and the Twin Fraud Triangles
We analyse public discourse on pastors' unethical financial exploitation within the charismatic Christian community. Using qualitative content analysis of social-media responses, we examine how the public perceives, discusses, and interprets these cases, privileging emic viewpoints. We find that faith leaders are seen to exploit congregants' social trust and spiritual devotion for personal gain. Grounded in Donald Cressey's Fraud Triangle theory,…
Pathways, Pressure, and Profit: Adaptive Innovation and Strain in a Convicted Cybercrime Academy Called Hustle Kingdom
Love, Lies, and Larceny: One Hundred Convicted Case Files of Cybercriminals with Eighty Involving Online Romance Fraud
Assessing Human Trafficking and Cybercrime Intersections Through Survivor Narratives
Fraud as Legitimate Retribution for Colonial Injustice: Neutralization Techniques in Interviews with Police and Online Romance Fraud Offenders
Cybercriminal Networks and Operational Dynamics of Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scammers: Insights from the 'Black Axe' Confraternity
I explored the relationship between the "Black Axe" Confraternity and cybercrime, with a particular emphasis on the structural dynamics of the Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes. I investigated whether a conventional hierarchical system governs the membership and remuneration for BEC roles as perpetrators by interviewing an accused "leader" of the "Black Axe" affiliated cybercriminal incarcerated in a prominent Western nation. I supplemented…
Strait of Hormuz: The Geopolitical to Cybercrime Cascade Framework and the 2026 US-Israel-Iran Conflict
War rarely stays contained; like dominoes, its effects can fall far beyond the battlefield. This conceptual paper develops the Geopolitical to Cybercrime Cascade Framework (GCCF) to explain how geopolitical conflict may generate downstream civilian cybercrime vulnerability in noncombatant settings. Weaving together insights from cybercrime research, hybrid warfare scholarship, and critical infrastructure studies, the framework shows how supply ch…
Malware as a Service in Human Trafficking Operations at a Scam Compound: Cybercrime Infrastructure and Forced Labor as Structurally Interdependent
Industrial-scale online fraud in Southeast Asia increasingly depends on advanced malware and forced labor. This brief report presents a secondary documentary analysis of publicly available cybersecurity and investigative sources. It applies a human trafficking framework to technical evidence. The primary source is an investigation by Infoblox and Chong Lua Dao, corroborated by (i) The Economist and (ii) the Cyber Scam Monitor profile of K99 Trium…
“UnderKingdom”, Enslavement Simulation, and the Normalization of Human Trafficking and Scam Compound Culture in Southeast Asia
This paper argues that Scam Center Simulator: UnderKingdom trivializes victim harm and dehumanizes trafficked persons. It normalizes offender identity within a documented and ongoing crisis. I examine these design features against Southeast Asia’s scam compound phenomenon. I adopt a viewpoint approach. The primary source is the developer’s public representation of game mechanics on Steam. This is supplemented by firsthand observation of available…
Online shopping fraud website production: An exploratory study of the mechanics of fraud
Purpose Online non-delivery fraud has expanded rapidly alongside the growth of e-commerce. The actors who technically enable this crime remain understudied. This paper aims to examine deviant website developers involved in producing fraudulent online shopping websites. It focuses specifically on websites used in “pet scams” and how socio-technical mechanisms sustain this type of fraud. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on qualitative da…
Space transition theory and its empirical applications in cybercrime research: A PRISMA-guided systematic review (2007 to 2025)
A reflexive performance of caution in a cryptocurrency fraud encounter
Evolutionary fraud, the global scamming ecosystem and a typology of actors
This study examines the adaptive nature of the global scamming ecosystem, focusing on developing a novel typology based on the size and organizational structure of scam operations. Through a combination of qualitative and case study analysis, the research categorizes scammers into five distinct groups, namely, “Demons,” “Gorgons,” “Ogres,” “Behemoths,” and “Mega Behemoths,” ranging from lone actors to large-scale enterprises with intricate hierar…
A crime script perspective on mapping the entry, continuation, and exit pathways of online romance fraud
Online romance fraud has received increasing scholarly and policy attention due to its socioeconomic and psychological consequences. While prior research has examined the technical, psychological, and structural conditions that enable these scams, far less is known about the temporal and behavioural processes that shape how individuals enter, sustain, and exit them. This study addresses that gap using qualitative data from publicly available cour…
Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies (18 works) · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance (11 works) · Cybercrime (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Sex work and related issues (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works)