Drug mule for love
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-11-2019-0149 |
| Published date | 13 May 2021 |
| Date | 13 May 2021 |
| Pages | 795-812 |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
| Author | Monica T. Whitty |
Drug mule for love
Monica T. Whitty
Institute for Cyber Security, UNSW Canberra, Campbell, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to gain in-depth understandings of the stages involved in the
case of a romance scam victim who was unknowingly used as a drug mule. The work compares this case
with established research in this field. It also seeks to learn more about the strategies used by these
cybercriminals.
Design/methodology/approach –The research presents a case study of a victim of a romance scam
who was arrested for drug trafficking. The research involves a grounded theory analysis of interviews
with the victim, legal team and family members and analysis of her instant messenger chat logs and email
communications.
Findings –The analysis identified a variation onprevious stage models of romance scams and re-names
this as the “romancescammers”strategy model. It also replicates previouswork on scammers’techniques and
highlightssome new strategies, including positivelyand negatively framing messages, unconditionalpositive
regard, activatingnorms of romantic relationships, cognitive immersion,manipulating role, sleep deprivation
and signingis believing.
Practical implications –These findingscould be used to help guide future similar court cases. Moreover,
they can be drawnupon to advance future research on romancescams, as well as scams in general.
Originality/value –This is the first in-depth case study of a romance scam victim involved in drug
trafficking and is the first researchon romance scams to examine in depth a case, taking into accounttextual
exchanges. While not underminingprevious research, this paper provides valuable insights that are lacking
in previousqualitative work on cyber scam victims.
Keywords Cybersecurity, Cybercrime, Cyberfraud, Cyberscam
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Romance scams, the focus of this paper, involvesa criminal or gang of criminals developing
a relationship with a victim with the intention to defraudthe victim of large sums of money
(Whitty and Buchanan, 2012). They are one of the most frequentscams, with the most high-
value losses reported. Romance scams originated as a scam where fraudulent profiles
targeted at heterosexual men were created in magazines inviting men to write to them.
These scams moved into email and later began sprouting on dating sites (Whitty, 2013).
These are now also evidentin multiple online spaces, including other social networkingsites
(e.g. LinkedIn) and VoIP(e.g. Skype) (ACCC, 2018).
The romance scam has also becomemuch more sophisticated and sinister –with victims
being coerced (typically unknowingly) by criminal gangs into acting as money and drug
mules (Better Business Bureau, 2019;Sorell and Whitty, 2019;Whitty, 2018). In February
2016, it was reported that at least 11 Australians have been reportedin custody in China or
transporting drugs,many of which are romance scam victims.
This paper presents a case studyof a victim of a romance scam who unknowingly acted
as a drug mule for an organised crime gang. It uncovers the methods usedby the criminals
to trick the victim and draw her into an elaborate scam. It first examinesthe anatomy of the
scam by drawing from previous work, which has set out the stages in the romance scam
(Whitty,2013, 2019). Second, this paper examines the strategies used by the criminals and
Drug mule for
love
795
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.30 No. 3, 2023
pp. 795-812
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-11-2019-0149
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1359-0790.htm
investigates whether other strategies also apply when a victim is unknowingly tricked into
becoming a drug mule.
1.1 Anatomy of the romance scam
Whitty (2013,2015a,2019)has proposed that the romance scam ought to be understood as a
series of stages, where the victim is drawn into an intense relationship and is eventually
asked for money (Figure 1). In the first stage of the scam the dater is motivated to find the
“ideal partner”(Whitty,2013). In Stage 2 of these scams, Whitty and others (Luu et al.,2017)
argue that daters are confronted with dating profiles especially crafted to entice potential
victims to form a relationship with them that will move off the dating site. In Stage 3 of
Whitty’s(2019)updated model, the victim manages to move out of the scam because they
can detect the profile is fake or move to the grooming stage. In Stage 4, victims are groomed
to gain the victims’trust. Once victimsare groomed, Whitty argues, it is difficult for friends,
family and even law enforcementto persuade victims into believing that theirrelationship is
not genuine. Towards the end of this stage, the criminal usually asks for a gift (e.g. mobile
phone, perfume) –which is described by Whitty(2013) as a “testing of the waters.”In Stage
5, referred to as “the sting”, victims are askedfor money, either of small amounts of money,
which increase rapidly to large amounts, or a large amount, which is reduced when the
victim tells them they cannot acquire the large sums asked for by the criminal.The reasons
for needing money are usuallyfor an emergency or crisis (e.g. medical emergency, bags with
gold stuck at the airportwith customs asking for money to release them).Stages which often
follow include new excusesfor more money, sometimes, sexual abuse and blackmail (where
the criminal threatens to make public sex videos of the victim masturbating in what they
believed to be a personalwebcam moment with their loved one) and re-victimisation.
1.2 Strategies used by criminals
Several scholars have investigated the strategies criminals use in scams that take place in
the physical and the cyber realms. Some have focussed on scams, in general, whilst others
have examined specific types of scams. These strategies are summarised. The summary
also highlights whichof these strategies have been noted by researchers of romancescams.
Deception: Deception is used in all scams (Titus and Gover, 2001). In the romance scam
the criminal creates a fake profile using a stolen photograph, a fake narrative about the
scammer and the reasonswhy they require money (Whitty,2013, 2015a).
Figure 1.
Adaptationof
Whitty’s (2019)
“Scammers
Persuasive
TechniquesModel”
(originallyproposed
by Whitty, 2013)
Sexual
abuse
Re-
victimisation
Crisis
No Crisis
New Crisis
Door-in-the
face technique
Foot-in-the
door technique
Crisis
Grooming
process
Human
detection of
scam vs
genuine
profiles
Presented with
ideal profile
Motivated to
find the ideal
partner
JFC
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796
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