This research uses discourse analysis and real written interactions between victim and fraudster to examine what interactional techniques perpetrators of fraud use to gain and maintain compliance from their victims, without causing them alarm. They do so in several steps, starting with establishing the relationship through building rapport and engaging in mutual storytelling and revealing of personal information, which would ordinarily cause concern in other contexts, but within the context of romance, is normalised as part of building rapport and of choosing a partner. Scripting in the form of storytelling around ideal partners is explored as part of the early grooming process, as is talk of money without reference to troubles. Setting expectations under the guise of establishing boundaries and exchanging personal preferences are later harnessed as promised the victim needs to fulfil. Reimagining traditional understandings of fraud victimisation and vulnerability, this work exposes how social and interactional norms, contexts and expectations are replicated and manipulated by fraudsters in order to compel individuals to be drawn into participating in an alternate, exploitative reality that is indistinguishable from safety. This paper exposes how individuals in this situation can be unable to recognise their situation as harmful, exploitative and criminal, and therefore unwilling to leave. This paper questions the efficacy of public fraud protection guidance strategies and delivers new and key evidence for the need to change the present approach to understanding and tackling fraud victimisation and complicity.
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