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Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon

In 2012 alone, the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) reports that Internet Romance Scams (IRS) have caused a loss of RM32.09million. Using romance and love as bait, romance scammers entice their targets into a romantic relationship before persuading them to give money; hence causing victims to also suffe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tan, Hooi Koon
Format: Thesis
Published: 2014
Subjects:
P Philology. Linguistics
Online Access:http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/1/CHAPTER1_to_APPENDICES.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/2/DECLARATION_WORK_MASTER.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/3/Name.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/4/PREFACE.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/5/TITLE_PAGE.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/
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spelling my.um.stud.54892015-06-27T02:44:27Z Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon Tan, Hooi Koon P Philology. Linguistics In 2012 alone, the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) reports that Internet Romance Scams (IRS) have caused a loss of RM32.09million. Using romance and love as bait, romance scammers entice their targets into a romantic relationship before persuading them to give money; hence causing victims to also suffer psychological and emotional trauma. This qualitative case study examines a total of 15 scammer e-mails taken from one successfully closed IRS case obtained from RMP to determine (1) how the scammer’s credible identity is established, (2) how the target’s emotional responses are aroused, and (3) how the fraudulent scheme is diachronically developed; focusing on Aristotle’s means of persuasion: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotions) and logos (reason). Briefly, at the beginning, the scammer established a credible identity by claiming to be a religious, reputable and honourable person. His credibility was enhanced through the use of evidence, reason and well-structured arguments to justify his claims or behaviour (e.g. request for money). Then, as an ideal lover, he developed an intense emotional bond with the target through the repetitive use of language that arouses positive emotions; but to obtain money from her, the scammer invoked her negative emotions using a distressed lover identity. This research also discusses the similarity between the development of the IRS and non-fraudulent romantic relationships as well as the possibility of IRS being a form of intimate partner violence. This research concludes with recommendations to reduce the number of IRS, along with the limitations of the research as well as the recommendations for future studies. Keywords: Internet romance scams (IRS), persuasion, influence tactics, credible identity, emotional appeals, online communication, romantic relationship development, romancing strategies, discourse analysis 2014 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/1/CHAPTER1_to_APPENDICES.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/2/DECLARATION_WORK_MASTER.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/3/Name.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/4/PREFACE.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/5/TITLE_PAGE.pdf Tan, Hooi Koon (2014) Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon. Masters thesis, University of Malaya. http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/
institution Universiti Malaya
building UM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaya
content_source UM Student Repository
url_provider http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/
topic P Philology. Linguistics
spellingShingle P Philology. Linguistics
Tan, Hooi Koon
Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon
description In 2012 alone, the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) reports that Internet Romance Scams (IRS) have caused a loss of RM32.09million. Using romance and love as bait, romance scammers entice their targets into a romantic relationship before persuading them to give money; hence causing victims to also suffer psychological and emotional trauma. This qualitative case study examines a total of 15 scammer e-mails taken from one successfully closed IRS case obtained from RMP to determine (1) how the scammer’s credible identity is established, (2) how the target’s emotional responses are aroused, and (3) how the fraudulent scheme is diachronically developed; focusing on Aristotle’s means of persuasion: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotions) and logos (reason). Briefly, at the beginning, the scammer established a credible identity by claiming to be a religious, reputable and honourable person. His credibility was enhanced through the use of evidence, reason and well-structured arguments to justify his claims or behaviour (e.g. request for money). Then, as an ideal lover, he developed an intense emotional bond with the target through the repetitive use of language that arouses positive emotions; but to obtain money from her, the scammer invoked her negative emotions using a distressed lover identity. This research also discusses the similarity between the development of the IRS and non-fraudulent romantic relationships as well as the possibility of IRS being a form of intimate partner violence. This research concludes with recommendations to reduce the number of IRS, along with the limitations of the research as well as the recommendations for future studies. Keywords: Internet romance scams (IRS), persuasion, influence tactics, credible identity, emotional appeals, online communication, romantic relationship development, romancing strategies, discourse analysis
format Thesis
author Tan, Hooi Koon
author_facet Tan, Hooi Koon
author_sort Tan, Hooi Koon
title Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon
title_short Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon
title_full Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon
title_fullStr Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon
title_full_unstemmed Persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / Tan Hooi Koon
title_sort persuasive techniques in internet romance scams / tan hooi koon
publishDate 2014
url http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/1/CHAPTER1_to_APPENDICES.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/2/DECLARATION_WORK_MASTER.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/3/Name.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/4/PREFACE.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/5/TITLE_PAGE.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5489/
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score 13.211869

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