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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
216
Living syntheses
10
Quality-cleared synopses
213
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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Explore the research

Search approved publications by title, author, DOI, topic, year, or research method.

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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

Synthesis and analysis across the corpus

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 the reviewed, human‑approved evidence, relationship‑based online frauds follow a multi‑stage interactional sequence: offenders create deceptive profiles to attract targets; build rapport over days-to-weeks; move conversations off dating apps to encrypted chat sites; and th...

Publications:
28
Evidence statements:
264
Read the living evidence synthesis
Living Evidence Synthesis

Prevention and Intervention

Prevention and Intervention for Romance-Linked and Crypto-Enabled Scams: Evidence Synthesis

Reviewed evidence supports a multi-layered prevention and intervention approach that emphasizes sustained, context-sensitive public education; platform-side detection and user alerts; coordinated financial-sector measures for cryptocurrency-enabled investment scams (‘pig‑butcheri...

Publications:
27
Evidence statements:
119
Read the living evidence synthesis

Research Library

Recently curated publications

Individual studies and reports recently added to the approved collection.

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‘Should’ve known better’: Using Lerner’s Belief in a Just World to understand ho...

This article investigates how Lerner’s Belief in a Just World (BJW) helps explain how professionals within the Fraud Justice Network (FJN) perceive victims of online romance and investment fraud. Drawing on qualitative i...

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Lovextortion: Persuasion strategies in romance cybercrime

This publication analyzes online romance scams, focusing on how persuaders cultivate trust and elicit financial compliance from victims. The study uses a corpus of authentic English-language messages and template texts f...

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Essays on the Rationality of Online Romance Scammers

This dissertation examines online romance scams through a multi-study approach to understand how and why offenders act the way they do in the digital dating arena. The author sets out to map the current literature, test...

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Catching the catfish: Exploring gender and the Dark Tetrad of personality as pre...

This study examines whether gender and the Dark Tetrad of personality (psychopathy, sadism, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) predict catfishing perpetration, a form of online deception. Framed by an evolutionary cheater...

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The Perfect Match: How Artificial Intelligence Is Industrializing Romance Fraud

The publication examines how artificial intelligence is transforming romance fraud by moving scams from episodic, small-scale operations to scalable, algorithmically driven enterprises. It distinguishes two main genres:...

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From swipe to swindle: a narrative review of research on older adult victims of...

This narrative review examines research on romance fraud affecting older adults (defined as 55 and older) and synthesizes empirical findings from eight studies published between 2017 and 2024. Its purpose is to understan...

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El timo del amor. Estafas eróticas realizadas por mujeres en Costa Rica entre 19...

This work addresses a crime that emerged in Costa Rica between the 1970s and the early 1990s, known as the “timo del amor” (love swindle). It consisted of frauds with erotic connotations in which the victims were men dec...

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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