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Online fraud offending within an Australian jurisdiction

Ioannis A. Bolimos (School of Information Technology & Mathematical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia)
Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo (School of Information Technology & Mathematical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia)

Journal of Financial Crime

ISSN: 1359-0790

Article publication date: 2 May 2017

1494

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to determine the level of online fraud offending within an Australian jurisdiction and how to best apply resources to combat it.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical data were provided by an Australian law enforcement agency, and qualitative responses were obtained from the parties involved in the crimes themselves (the victims, the offenders and the nominated law enforcement agency).

Findings

Although there was variance between the ages of the online fraud victims, there was a slightly higher chance of an older member of the population falling victim to an offender than that of a younger person. The number of a particular gender reporting an instance of cybercrime in a given area can be higher if the total number of participants in that area was also high. Older victims were more likely to lose larger amounts of money to online fraud. Furthermore, it was found that when the non-gender identifiable data were removed, this increased to over 80 per cent.

Originality/value

Existing literature on online fraud and criminal offending generally focused on the quantitative aspects of measuring offending, which does not give an indication into the “why” component of the study: why are these offences being committed; why do these offenders pick particular victims; and why do the victims fall for such ruses? In this paper, the authors combined the qualitative responses obtained from those parties involved in the crimes themselves (the victims, the offenders and the nominated law enforcement agency) with a quantitative examination of the crime figures provided by an Australian law enforcement agency.

Keywords

Citation

Bolimos, I.A. and Choo, K.-K.R. (2017), "Online fraud offending within an Australian jurisdiction", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 277-308. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-05-2016-0029

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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