Online romance scam victimization fear: theorizing the causes and the consequences

Purpose Understanding the causes and the consequences of online romance scam victimization fear, a psychological stress, is crucial for online daters to achieve a positive experience and for online dating platforms to provide that experience. This research contextualized and tested a theory concerning the negative psychological factors of online romance scams and their consequences on online dating positive psychology. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a developmental mixed-method design. The first phase was a qualitative study following a positivist paradigm. The second phase was a survey-based quantitative study. After the quantitative results, this research combined the understanding from both phases to develop the meta-inferences and finalized the antecedents and consequences of online romance scam victimization fear in online dating. Findings An increase in online romance scam-related anxiety and social vulnerability is positively associated with cognitive vulnerability. An increase in online romance scam-related anxiety, cognitive vulnerability and social vulnerability is positively associated with online romance scam victimization fear. An increase in online romance scam-related anxiety, cognitive vulnerability, social vulnerability and victimization fear is negatively associated with online dating psychological capital. Practical implications Utilizing this study’s findings, dating platforms can develop strategies to reduce users’ fear of online romance scam victimization and provide them with higher psychological capital to continue online dating. Originality/value The study contributes to cybercrime and online dating literature by capturing the psychological antecedents of scam victimization fear and showing how fear stimuli can lead to responses, which in turn cause a detrimental effect on online dating psychological capital.