CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 83Elder Abuse and NeglectCriminal Justice and PenologyCybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies

“They’re Very Lonely”: Understanding the Fraud Victimisation of Seniors

Open access
Cross, Cassandra·2016·International Journal for Crime Justice and Social Democracy
DOI 10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i4.268
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

There are many theories which seek to explain fraud victimisation. In particular, older victims find themselves at the intersection of various discourses which account for victimisation, primarily from a deficit model. This article examines two discourses relevant to older fraud victims. The first positions older victims of crime as weak and vulnerable and the second positions fraud victims generally as greedy and gullible. Using interviews with twenty-one Canadian volunteers who provide telephone support to older fraud victims (all seniors themselves), this article analyses the extent to which these two discourses are evident in the understandings of these volunteers. It finds that volunteers overwhelmingly perceive fraud to occur out of loneliness and isolation of the victim, and actively resist victim blaming narratives towards these individuals. While neither discourse is overly positive, the article discusses the implications of these discourses for the victims themselves and for their ability to access support.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i4.268

Cites

29 of 29 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • This talk targets older adults, associating increased life experience and wealth with retired older adults, and implicitly leverages the prospect of loneliness common among this age group.

    “This talk targets older adults, increased life experience and wealth being associated with retired older adults, and in implicitly leveraging the prospect of loneliness, which is a common concern among this age group (Cross 2016).”

    From The Language of Romance Crimes (2024) · cites this paper as Cross 2016

    In “Discourse one” (p. 65), Cross describes older people as attractive fraud targets because they may hold assets, and discusses loneliness and isolation as social vulnerabilities. In “The perceptions of the volunteers: Weak and vulnerable?” (page not given), volunteers describe loneliness as a way offenders establish relationships with older victims. The paper does not link increased life experience to retired adults or examine the particular talk’s targeting strategy. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. M, Lewis C and Tapley J (2014) Not a victimless crime: The impact of fraud on individual victims and their families. Security Journal 27(1): 36-54. DOI: 10.1057/sj.2012. · DOI
  2. Christie N (1986) The ideal victim. In Fattah E (ed.) From Crime Policy to Victim Policy: 17-30. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  3. Cohen C (2006) Consumer fraud and the elderly: A review of Canadian challenges and initiatives. In Mellor M and Brownell P (eds) Elder Abuse and Mistreatment: Policy, Practice and Research: 137-144. New York: Haworth Press.
  4. Drew J and Cross C (2013) Fraud and its PREY: Conceptualising social engineering tactics and its impact on financial literacy outcomes. Journal of Financial Services Marketing 18: 188-198. DOI: 10.1057/fsm.2013. · DOI
  5. Eigenberg H (2003) Victim Blaming. In Moriarty L (ed.) Controversies in Victimology: 15-24. Cincinnati, Ohio: Anderson Publishing.
  6. Graycar A and James M (2001) Older people and consumer law. Paper presented at 4th National Outlook Symposium on Crime in Australia: New Crimes or New Responses, 22 June. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.
  7. Heidensohn F (1989) Crime and Society. London: Palgrave.
  8. Holtfreter K, Reisig M and Blomberg T (2006) Consumer fraud victimisation in Florida: An empirical study. St Thomas Law Review 18(3): 761-789.
  9. Rege A (2009) What's love got to do with it? Exploring online dating scams and identity. International Journal of Cyber Criminology 3(2): 494-512.
  10. Smith RG (2003) Misuse of older persons assets by professionals. Paper presented at Steps forward for Families: Research, Practice and Policy Conference, 12 February. Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Institute of Family Studies.
  11. Strobl R (2010) Becoming a victim. In Shoham S (ed.) International Handbook of Victimology: 3- 25. Hoboken, New Jersey: CRC Press.
  12. Titus R (2001) Personal fraud and its victims. In Shover N and Wright J (eds) Crimes of Privilege: 57-66. New York: Oxford University Press.
  13. Wolf R (2000) Elders as victims of crime, abuse, neglect and exploitation. In Rothman M, Dunlop B and Entzel P (eds) Elders, Crime and the Criminal Justice System: 19-42. New York: Springer Publishing.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Cross, C.
Corresponding author
Cross, Cassandra
ORCID
Cross, Cassandra
Venue
International Journal for Crime Justice and Social Democracy
Publisher
Queensland University of Technology
Published
2016-12-01
Volume
5
Issue
4
Pages
60-75
ISSN
  • 2202-7998 (ISSN-L)
  • 2202-8005
DOI
10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i4.268
OpenAlex
W2559631186
Cited by
83
References
29
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2
FWCI
4.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • International Journal for Crime Justice and Social Democracy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
  • Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
Keywords
older adults, fraud victims, deficit model, victim blaming, loneliness, social isolation, victim vulnerability, gullibility

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review