Low Self-Control, Information Disclosure, and the Risk of Online Fraud
Abstract
This study investigates the risk of being a target of an attempt at fraud through email by assessing the role of low self-control, online activities, and the disclosure of personal information. A secondary analysis of the 2014 U.S. “Caught in the Scammers’ Net”, a national survey of online victimization ( N = 1,539), indicates that those with low self-control and individuals who engage in online activities are more likely to disclose personal information online. The risk of being targeted with a fraudulent offer is also associated with low self-control and online routine activities. Responding to a fraudulent offer is associated with disclosing personal information online and low self-control. Taken together, our empirical evidence strengthens the central role of low self-control theory.
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Other surveys on fraud have found little to no association between race and risk of victimization, but sample sizes were significantly smaller and these studies focused on online forms of fraud.
“Other surveys on fraud have found little to no association between race and risk of victimization (e.g., Holtfreter et al. 2008;Mesch and Dodel 2018), but sample sizes were significantly smaller and these studies focused on online forms of fraud.”
From Profiling consumers who reported mass marketing scams: demographic characteristics and emotional sentiments associated with victimization (2024) · cites this paper as Mesch and Dodel 2018
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DeLiema, M., & Witt, P. (2024) · Security Journal · doi:10.1057/s41284-023-00401-5 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“Other surveys on fraud have found little to no association between race and risk of victimization (e.g., Holtfreter et al. 2008; Mesch and Dodel 2018), but sample sizes were significantly smaller and these studies focused on online forms of fraud.”
Wang, X., Ma, J., Liang, Y., Ma, L., & Liu, P. (2023) · Public Health · doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2023.01.002 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mesch, G. S., & Dodel, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Haifa (IL)
- Department of Sociology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
- Corresponding author
- Mesch, Gustavo S.
- Venue
- American Behavioral Scientist
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-07-10
- Volume
- 62
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1356-1371
- ISSN
- 0002-7642 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3381
- OpenAlex
- W2864548321
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 5.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Behavioral Scientist (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Science, Technology of Israel
- Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Haifa
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Spam and Phishing Detection
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
- Keywords
- low self-control, online fraud, email fraud, personal information disclosure, cyber victimization, routine activity theory, online activities
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