Cybercrime and socioeconomic realities: Perpetrators’ perspectives from Ghana

Abstract

This study, grounded in Rational Choice Theory, explores the strategies and decision-making processes of online romance fraud perpetrators in Ghana. Using a qualitative approach, thirteen individuals involved in such fraud were interviewed through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were analysed using Miles and Huberman’s transcendental realism. Findings reveal that perpetrators use deceptive online personas, emotional manipulation, and victims as intermediaries in broader cybercrimes like e-commerce fraud, identity theft, and credit card fraud. Their actions reflect rational evaluations of risk and reward, shaped by socio-economic factors such as poverty, unemployment, and lack of education. The study underscores the need for targeted policy interventions and offers rare insights from the perpetrators’ perspective in a developing country context.