Related papers: The Trajectory of Romance Scams in the U.S
Romance fraud involves cybercriminals engineering a romantic relationship on online dating platforms. It is a cruel form of cybercrime whereby victims are left heartbroken, often facing financial ruin. We characterise the literary landscape…
Online romance scams are a prevalent form of mass-marketing fraud in the West, and yet few studies have addressed the technical or data-driven responses to this problem. In this type of scam, fraudsters craft fake profiles and manually…
Mobile messaging scams--fraudulent messages delivered over SMS and other mobile applications--have become a persistent and evolving security threat, yet the attributes underlying these campaigns remain unclear. This study seeks to address…
Romance-baiting scams have become a major source of financial and emotional harm worldwide. These operations are run by organized crime syndicates that traffic thousands of people into forced labor, requiring them to build emotional…
Minors are at risk of myriad harms online, yet online dating romance scams are seldom considered one of them. While research of romance scams in Western countries finds victims to predominantly be middle-age, it is unknown if minors in…
International students (IntlS) in the US refer to foreign students who acquire student visas to study in the US, primarily in higher education. As IntlS arrive in the US, they face several challenges, such as adjusting to a new country and…
SMS Phishing (also known as 'smishing') is a growing deceptive social engineering (SE) attack that leverages mobile SMS to conduct cybercrimes such as stealing sensitive information or spreading malware by tricking users into interacting…
Scams are a widespread issue with severe consequences for both victims and perpetrators, but existing data collection is fragmented, precluding global and comparative local understanding. The present study addresses this gap through a…
As adoption of mobile phones has skyrocketed, so have scams involving them. The text method is called SMiShing, (aka SMShing, or smishing) in which a fraudster sends a phishing link via Short Message Service (SMS) text to a phone. However,…
Longer-running scams, such as romance fraud and "pig-butchering" scams, exploit not only victims' emotions but also the design of digital platforms. Scammers commonly leverage features such as professional-looking profile verification,…
Phone scams pose a significant threat to individuals and communities, causing substantial financial losses and emotional distress. Despite ongoing efforts to combat these scams, scammers continue to adapt and refine their tactics, making it…
Sequential Recommender Systems (SRSs) are widely used to model user behavior over time, yet their robustness remains an under-explored area of research. In this paper, we conduct an empirical study to assess how the presence of fake users,…
Over the years, online scams have grown dramatically, with nearly 50% of global consumers encountering scam attempts each week. These scams cause not only significant financial losses to individuals and businesses, but also lasting…
This article attempts to discover the surreptitious features of ransomware and to address it in information systems security research. It intends to elicit attention with regard to ransomware, a newly emerged cyber threat using such…
Phone scams remain a difficult problem to tackle due to the combination of protocol limitations, legal enforcement challenges and advances in technology enabling attackers to hide their identities and reduce costs. Scammers use social…
Online financial scams represent a long-standing and serious threat for which people seek help. We present a study to understand people's in situ motivations for engaging with scams and the help needs they express before, during, and after…
In technical support scams, cybercriminals attempt to convince users that their machines are infected with malware and are in need of their technical support. In this process, the victims are asked to provide scammers with remote access to…
Phishing is a well-known cybersecurity attack that has rapidly increased in recent years. It poses legitimate risks to businesses, government agencies, and all users due to sensitive data breaches, subsequent financial and productivity…
Recommender systems (RS), serving at the forefront of Human-centered AI, are widely deployed in almost every corner of the web and facilitate the human decision-making process. However, despite their enormous capabilities and potential, RS…
Online scams often unfold gradually through interaction, yet existing detection systems predominantly rely on snapshot-based signals and interruptive warnings, revealing two research gaps in the lack of signals that represent scam risk…