How does Victim Precipitation Theory explain Deviant Behaviours of Internet Romance Offenders? Gamer’s Perspective of Victim Precipitation

Internet romance fraud is a global canker with severe consequences to the victims ranging from significant financial loss, emotional trauma, to loss of life and property. The paper examines how internet romance offenders rationalize their deviant criminal behaviours and how these criminals use victim precipitation to commit internet romance fraud. The three dimensions of victim precipitation theory in this study are victim facilitation, victim provocation and victim openness. The research explains how internet romance offenders rationalize and justify their deviant behaviour. The data from this research model elicited 320 individual responses from hotspots associated with internet fraud activities. The findings from this study highlight the conditions under which victim precipitation theory dimensions in the context of internet romance fraud occur. The findings shows that offenders of internet romance fraud rely heavily on victim precipitation to perpetuate their criminal activities: all the three dimensions studied are used by these criminals as justification techniques to increases offenders’ predisposition to commit internet romance fraud. All three victim precipittion techniues ae used; victim openness, victim facilitation and victim provocation, respectively. This expands the boundaries of victim precipitation theory. The study contributes to new dimensions of victim precipitation in online romance fraud. This study has theoretical and criminology implications; and it gives a new perspective of how victims should conduct themselves in internet romance fraud cases. It also enriches the debate of victim precipitation in criminology discipline. Citation:Offei, M. O. (2021). How does Victim Precipitation Theory explain Deviant Behaviours of Internet Romance Offenders? Gamer’s Perspective of Victim Precipitation. International Journal of Technology and Management Research (IJTMR), Vol. 6 (2): Pp.59-72 Received: March 3, 2021Accepted: September 1, 2021

Internet fraud: technologies of performance, ways of counteraction and prevention

The article proves that the separation of technologies for committing fraud on the Internet allows you to determine the causal complexes. As a result, it is possible to effectively influence the prevention and counteraction of the corresponding type of crime. The author concludes that it is necessary to introduce into the practice of law enforcement and other government agencies effective tools for preventing and combating Internet fraud. He sees such a tool as outreach activities and modes of action that will block the determinants of criminal behavior in cyberspace. In order to concretize the specified means of prevention, it also deepens the theoretical basis regarding the system for preventing Internet fraud. So, the author comes to the conclusion that counteraction is a system of measures and methods of activity not only of law enforcement agencies, but also of other state and non-state bodies, while among these measures there are measures to prevent certain types of crimes. The article indicates that in the process of implementing a certain type of cybercrimes by criminals, they talk about the technologies of criminal activity as complexes of interrelated crimes, united by a single criminal purpose. For the commission of Internet fraud in the technology of criminal activity, there are typically ways of committing crimes in the use of computers, systems and computer networks and telecommunication networks (provided for in Section XVI of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and Art. 200 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. As a result of the analysis of the materials of the forensic practice of investigating fraud on the Internet, two main technologies have been identified: 1) the seizure of funds using phishing sites (the methods of reporting false information from the victim and its content have been updated) 2) the seizure of funds using a bank payment card and / or ATM (the variability of the method of manipulating information has been updated)

Features of the initial stage of investigating fraud with financial resources in cyberspace

The article aims to characterize the forensic features of the initial stage of investigating fraud with financial resources in cyberspace, its significance, analysis, and justification as a type of cybercrime that is dangerous for everyone, and prove the need for urgent measures to prevent and combat such criminal offenses. The authors used several methods of scientific cognition: logical-semantic, system-structural, analytical, formal-legal, forecasting, dialectical, interpretation, and hermeneutics. The article focuses on the general provisions of the forensic characteristics of Internet fraud with financial resources; analysis of the information model of the mechanism of committing fraud with financial resources in the field of computer information; coverage of the tactical features of individual investigative actions at the initial stage of the investigation of fraud with financial resources in cyberspace. It was concluded that the effectiveness of combating Internet fraud and the level of cybersecurity in Ukraine is very low. Therefore, the investigation of fraud with financial resources in cyberspace requires in-depth specific knowledge from the subjects of the investigation.

Identity Expression—the Case of ‘Sakawa’ Boys in Ghana

Internet fraud remains a problem in Ghana and thus attracts the attention of teachers, researchers, civil society organisations, the state and policymakers. Existing studies on Internet fraud focused on the reasons, combat strategies, cyber spiritualism, the impact of Internet fraud on individuals and the country, and the inadequate legal frameworks for handling such cybercrimes. Despite efforts by the government and other interest groups in fighting the menace, the phenomenon continues to increase among youth in Ghana. Applying Paul Willis’ theory of ethnographic imagination, this study examined how Internet scammers—Sakawa boys—in the northern region of Ghana use their bodies and other cultural materials to express their identity and make meaning. The study reveals that Sakawa boys express their identities and make meaning using language—slang and jargon; conspicuous consumption of material goods; ostentatious lifestyle; techno-religiosity; and gender cyber-fraud collaboration. Thus, it offers a basal understanding of emic dimension of relationship between children and youth in cybercrime, unsuspected victims, and preventive measures. The study also gives theoretical contributions to research in understanding the broader socio-cultural milieu of children and youth in crimes and possible practical measures towards containment.

UNHOLY PRACTICES AMONG YOUTHS IN NIGERIA: VENOMS BREEDING TO A DISJOINTED SOCIETY

Before the year 1990 and up to the late 1990s, Nigeria was ravaged by what was known then as “Advanced Free Fraud” christened (419) and “Trades of Narcotic Drugs”. After more than two decades, a new set of unholy practices have found its way into the fabric of the society and have consistently proven to be worse than the duo of “419” and “trades of narcotic drugs”. This set of practices though not narrowed to the youths but majorly driven and made to flourish by the attendant number of youths who are in haste not only to make a living but flamboyant, thriftless and profligate lives detrimental to norms, values and society itself. Premised on the danger they herald for the society, the paper appraised the numerous unholy practices rampant among youths in Nigeria and their impacts on the society. Exploratory method was made use of; secondary source was employed and inferences were drawn via qualitative analysis. Findings revealed that exponential decadence among youths is directly proportional to the culture of prostitution, regime of internet fraud (yahoo-yahoo), kidnapping for ransom, social revolution of gambling etcetera. The paper concludes that unholy practices among youths have constituted a nuisance in no small measure to the society. The paper however advocates that the government at all levels should up their game in training youths in the vocation that would make them engage and reduce the surge in such practices in the society.

Similarity measure fuzzy soft set for phishing detection

Phishing is a serious web security problem, and the internet fraud technique involves mirroring genuine websites to trick online users into stealing their sensitive information and taking out their personal information, such as bank account information, usernames, credit card, and passwords. Early detection can prevent phishing behavior makes quick protection of personal information. Classification methods can be used to predict this phishing behavior. This paper presents an intelligent classification model for detecting Phishing by redefining a fuzzy soft set (FSS) theory for better computational performance. There are four types of similarity measures: (1) Comparison table, (2) Matching function, (3) Similarity measure, and (4) Distance measure. The experiment showed that the Similarity measure has better performance than the others in accuracy and recall, reached 95.45 % and 99.77 %, respectively. It concludes that FSS similarity measured is more precise than others, and FSS could be a promising approach to avoid phishing activities. This novel method can be implemented in social media software to warn the users as an early warning system. This model can be used for personal or commercial purposes on social media applications to protect sensitive data.

Peculiarities of The Economic Crimes Committed with the Use of Information Technologies

The article looks into peculiarities of the economic crimes committed using information technologies. Different approaches to the concept of the economic crime are analyzed to reveal types of economic crimes, which can be committed with the use of information technologies. It is stated that mostly two types of economic crimes could be committed using information technologies – online fraud and forgery. Subjects and objects of a forgery committed with the use of information technologies are analyzed. Close attention is paid to the online fraud and its specific features. The classification of types of the Internet fraud is made. Some specific characteristics of certain types of the Internet fraud are given in the article. Such types of the Internet fraud as spam, carding, phishing, fraud in online games are described. The main method used in the investigation is the method of comparative analysis, which was used to reveal differences between traditional economic crimes and economic crimes committed with the use if information technologies. The general conclusion was made that economic crimes committed with help of information technologies have a number of differences compared to traditional ones. These differences determine the features of the investigation of such crimes. In particular, such features are manifested in the implementation of operational and investigative measures and investigative actions.