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The living evidence base for romance scam research

Find the studies, inspect the evidence, understand what is known, and see the questions that still need answers.

We do not host documents. All items link to publisher or repository pages.

Research corpus at a glance

Approved publications
291
Living syntheses
10
Quality-cleared synopses
291
Corpus updated

How RSRC Uses AI

AI helps RSRC organize and summarize research. Outputs may contain errors; verify findings in the linked original source.

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See what the evidence says

Read living syntheses that connect findings across publications and identify uncertainties and research gaps.

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Research Insights

Corpus-level findings that connect evidence across multiple publications and make uncertainties and research gaps visible.

Living Evidence Synthesis

Attack Methods and Offender Strategies

Attack Methods and Offender Strategies: How offenders identify, approach, groom, deceive, and exploit targets

Across reviewed empirical and synthesis work, relationship‑based online fraud is described as a staged, interactional social‑engineering process in which offenders construct false profiles, initiate contact, cultivate trust, progressively test compliance, and then request money....

Publications:
24
Evidence statements:
264
Read the living evidence synthesis
Living Evidence Synthesis

Prevention and Intervention

Prevention and Intervention for Relationship-Based Romance and Pig-Butchering Scams: Evidence Synthesis

Reviewed evidence supports a staged, multi-layered prevention and intervention approach that aligns timing and modality of responses to commonly observed grooming-to-extraction sequences in relationship-based scams. Victim-report and qualitative research document clustered recogn...

Publications:
25
Evidence statements:
107
Read the living evidence synthesis

Research Library

Recently curated publications

Individual studies and reports recently added to the approved collection.

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Analyzing Modern Scam Typologies: From Pig-Butchering and Nigerian Advance-Fee...

This publication provides a neutral synthesis of four research papers in the 2026 issue of the International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime, focusing on contemporary cyber scam typologies and defens...

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Three-Tier On-Chain Transaction Architecture in a Sanctions-Linked Pig-Butcherin...

This publication presents a blockchain-forensics case study of a sanctions-linked pig-butchering network, focusing on 29 Bitcoin addresses designated by OFAC as tied to the Prince Group and Chen Zhi. The authors frame th...

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Language, Psychology, and New New Media: The Hyperpersonal Model of Mediated Com...

The publication provides a neutral, source-grounded synthesis of the hyperpersonal model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as it stands 25 years after its original articulation. It describes the model as a framewo...

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Human‐supervised LLM triage of pig butchering complaints: A validation study of...

The study aims to validate a human‑supervised triage approach for pig butchering complaints by testing whether multi‑model identifier extraction can recover triage‑relevant forensic identifiers from public complaints. It...

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Behind the Mask: The Devastating Emotional Fallout of Catfishing

This publication examines catfishing as a predatory online behavior in dating contexts, focusing on how false identities are constructed and used to manipulate others for financial gain or emotional control. The authors...

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“CATFISHING” : EXPOSING TEEN RECEPTION ON MTV CATFISH ONLINE DATING

This article investigates how Indonesian adolescents aged 19–24, active in online dating and living in Jakarta, interpret and react to catfishing as depicted in MTV’s Catfish: The TV Show, episode “Jake & Taylor.” Ground...

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Catfish: Exploring the Individual Predictors and Interpersonal Characteristics o...

This study investigates catfishing in online romantic relationships by comparing perpetrators who misrepresent themselves online with targets who are deceived, using a triangulation mixed-methods design guided by the Cou...

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About RSRC

Built to make romance scam research usable

Founded by LD Herrera, PhD, RSRC organizes romance scam scholarship into a searchable public library and living evidence syntheses for researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and the public.

Learn about RSRC and its founder