Yushawu Abubakari - Love, Lies, and Exploitation on the Cyberspace: Understanding Online Romance Fraud (Sociology)

Love and deception often intersect in unexpected places, especially today, in cyberspace, where social interactions and relationships increasingly unfold. This lecture explores the world of online romance fraud, a growing form of cyber deviance in which offenders’ fake romantic identities to manipulate and defraud their victims. Aimed at creating awareness and unpacking the human and structural dimensions of this digital deviance, the lecture offers an understanding of how online intimacy can become a site of exploitation. Central to the discussion is the psychosocial narrative of how love, intimacy, and trust are socially constructed and manipulated for economic gain on the cyberspace. The lecture examines how emotional vulnerability intersects with social isolation, gendered partner ideation, and digital criminogenic literacy, the skillsets offenders use to exploit others online. Drawing on real-world cases in the Czech Republic, it engages audiences in understanding the strategies romance fraud actors employ to lure victims, focusing on the processes of psychological and emotional grooming and the ways victims’ trust is systematically violated. Also, the lecture considers the broader implications for victims’ mental health, financial stability, and social well-being. The Lecture situates online romance fraud within wider discussions of cyberculture, globalization, and economic exploitation at the micro level of digital interaction. It presents cyberspace and technology as mediating both social relations, deception, and economic exploitation in the quest for love.