Victims’ relational work in online investment fraud
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24225673 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ran Ren (0000-0002-9489-9912, Chengdu University of Technology), Yun Ai (0009-0007-4864-0516, Central University of Finance and Economics) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-11 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00380385261487047 |
| OpenAlex | W7221464950 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
Victims’ participation in online investment frauds is not just justified by egoist desire or greed, but also changing relational frames under uncertainty and ambiguity. Drawing on the concept of relational work from economic sociology, this paper examines how victims of the ‘China–Africa Mining Corporation’ fraud justify and sustain their participation in such a crime of interaction. Based on two years of digital fieldwork, we trace victims’ in situ experiences across three stages of participation. First, victims overcame the uncertainty of investing by drawing on personal relationships and state-sanctioned narratives to construct trust. Second, those who became referrers framed recruitment as an act of care, staking their own credibility on the scheme’s legitimacy. Third, as returns failed to materialise, victims sustained belief through practices of patience, loyalty, and moral affirmation. The paper extends the application of relational work theory to cybercrime and demonstrates how victims’ relational work rendered participation meaningful and defensible.
Cybercrime · digital fieldwork · Economic sociology · fraud victims · Legitimacy · moral justification · referral networks · relational work · Trust · Criminal Justice and Penology · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies · Securities Regulation and Market Practices
Cybercrime as an industry
Economic Action and Social Structure
Oh we can’t actually do anything about that’
Distort, Extort, Deceive and Exploit
Selling Genes, Selling Gender
It's a who-you-know thing
Relational work and careers of intimacy
Gender, Money, and Sexuality
Obfuscatory Relational Work and Disreputable Exchange
Digital Ethnography
One Woman Helping Another
Relational Work and Economic Sociology
How I Became a Relational Economic Sociologist and What Does That Mean
Relational Work in the Economy
Profiling Victims of Investment Fraud
Invigorating the Content in Social Embeddedness
An Anatomy of 'Pig Butchering Scams
The Profile of Ponzi Scheme Victims in China and the Characteristics of Their Decision-making Process
A market of distrust
Emotions in economic action and interaction
| Highly cited | No |
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