TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED FRAUD IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: CRIMINOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS, VICTIMOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES AND OFFENDER PROFILES
Keywords:
Cyber fraud, information technologies, digital criminology, offender personality, social engineering, online lending, virtual cards, victimology, anti-fraud systems, digital literacy, fraud triangle, routine activity theory.Abstract
This article examines cyber fraud committed through information technologies as a complex criminal-law, criminological, psychological, technological and victimological phenomenon. It argues that the digitalisation of economic relations has not merely changed the instruments of fraud, but has transformed the criminogenic environment in which fraudulent conduct is conceived, executed and concealed. Online lending, mobile banking, virtual cards, plastic card operations, instant money transfers, messengers and social networks have created new opportunities for offenders to exploit trust, urgency, financial need and digital illiteracy. The article rejects the narrow stereotype that the cyber fraud offender is necessarily a hacker or highly skilled programmer. In many cases, the offender acts as a social engineer, digital intermediary, fake official-status creator or opportunistic fraudster who manipulates the victim rather than technically breaking an information system. The research applies routine activity theory, the fraud triangle, rational choice theory, differential association theory, anomie theory and neutralisation theory to explain the causes and conditions of cyber fraud. It proposes authorial definitions of technology-enabled fraud, cyber fraud offender, digital-manipulative competence, illusion of officiality and digital criminogenic environment. The article concludes that effective prevention requires an integrated model combining criminal-law response, anti-fraud monitoring, digital literacy, victim-oriented reporting, interinstitutional cooperation and unified judicial practice.
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