Gillespie, Alisdair Allan (2017) The electronic Spanish prisoner : romance frauds on the internet. Journal of Criminal Law, 81 (3). pp. 217-231. ISSN 0022-0183
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Abstract
Whilst a considerable amount of scholarship has been produced about cyber-fraud, this article seeks to adopt a slightly different approach. It focuses on the issue of ‘romance fraud’, the phenomenon whereby a person meets a person ostensibly for romance, yet with the real purpose of defrauding them. This article builds upon empirical research conducted by others to question whether romance fraud should be treated as a financial crime or whether its behaviours are more similar to offences against the person. After discussing how romance frauds are perpetrated, it will consider alternative liability and put forward the thesis that treating romance fraud as a financial crime lets victims down, particularly where the fraud has involved sexual intimacy.