"You are going to change their perception of reality of what they believe is true" A narrative study of fraud investigators interpretation of Romance and Investment fraud.
(2026) CCRM15 20261Department of Sociology
- Abstract
- Romance and investment fraud are complex crimes to investigate. Previous research centers around these fraud’s offenders and victims. However, much less attention has been given to the perspectives of the fraud investigators, even though their central role in the investigation and prevention process. The investigators often encounter resistance from victims, due to them being exposed to social manipulation by a fraudster that the investigators understands includes meaning-making. The aim of this thesis is to highlight how investigators within banks strategically work to handle these frauds, where attention is on how their interpretations of romance and investment fraud influence their investigative and preventative strategies. Qualitative... (More)
- Romance and investment fraud are complex crimes to investigate. Previous research centers around these fraud’s offenders and victims. However, much less attention has been given to the perspectives of the fraud investigators, even though their central role in the investigation and prevention process. The investigators often encounter resistance from victims, due to them being exposed to social manipulation by a fraudster that the investigators understands includes meaning-making. The aim of this thesis is to highlight how investigators within banks strategically work to handle these frauds, where attention is on how their interpretations of romance and investment fraud influence their investigative and preventative strategies. Qualitative interviews have been conducted with fraud investigators, and the findings have been analyzed through a thematic analysis with an abductive approach. Theoretical connections have been drawn upon narrative theory, focusing on meaning-making and narrative stories that guide one's action. The essay is structured as follows: an introduction and background, followed by a literature review and theoretical framework. The methodological approach is then presented through which the results and analysis comes next. Lastly, the study concludes with a discussion. This thesis shows how the participants' investigative practices consist of narrative intervention, management of resistance and introducing alternative narratives. The preventative measures are understood as a way of influencing the customers interpretation of fraud. This study thus contributes to the current research field, as the investigators' perspectives become highlighted that in turn can benefit the fraud preventative work within other social actors. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- In contemporary society, fraud is a widespread phenomenon affecting individuals as well as institutional practices. There are different types of fraud, where the focus on this study is on romance and investment fraud. These frauds involve offenders that are manipulating its victims' vulnerabilities, which ultimately leads to the victims suffering financial and emotional damages. Due to these consequences and the widespread problem of these frauds in society, several social actors are working with prevention measures for combating romance and investment fraud and one of those actors are the banks. Previous research often centers around offenders and victims of these frauds. However, there is much less knowledge about fraud investigators'... (More)
- In contemporary society, fraud is a widespread phenomenon affecting individuals as well as institutional practices. There are different types of fraud, where the focus on this study is on romance and investment fraud. These frauds involve offenders that are manipulating its victims' vulnerabilities, which ultimately leads to the victims suffering financial and emotional damages. Due to these consequences and the widespread problem of these frauds in society, several social actors are working with prevention measures for combating romance and investment fraud and one of those actors are the banks. Previous research often centers around offenders and victims of these frauds. However, there is much less knowledge about fraud investigators' perspectives of these frauds, despite their central role in investigating and preventing this type of crime. Since there is a lack of knowledge of their perspective, this study is contributing with a nuanced understanding by highlighting how fraud investigators interpret romance and investment fraud, and how that interpretation influences their strategic working and preventative practices.
In order to capture the perspectives of these professionals, interviews have been carried out with eight fraud investigators, working at three different banks in Sweden. The interviews have been analyzed and which have led to results of value as other social actors in society can benefit from them to more effectively combat these frauds. This study shows how romance and investment frauds are complex crimes to investigate, based on the experiences of the investigators. The investigators are experiencing a conflict between their perspective and the victims perspective, due to the victims being manipulated into believing that their perception of reality is real. In order for the professionals to fulfill their investigative role, they are using certain communicational techniques in the interaction with the victim, for the purpose of getting them to understand that they are exposed to fraud. The investigators have based their working practices on their previous professional experiences and interpretations of these frauds, and those experiences have also influenced their perception of how to more effectively prevent romance and investment fraud in the future. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9241755
- author
- Johnsson, Isabella LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- CCRM15 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Romance fraud, Investment fraud, Fraud investigators, Manipulation, Narrative conflict, Narrative intervention, Meaning-making
- language
- English
- id
- 9241755
- date added to LUP
- 2026-07-03 11:01:14
- date last changed
- 2026-07-03 11:01:14
@misc{9241755,
abstract = {{Romance and investment fraud are complex crimes to investigate. Previous research centers around these fraud’s offenders and victims. However, much less attention has been given to the perspectives of the fraud investigators, even though their central role in the investigation and prevention process. The investigators often encounter resistance from victims, due to them being exposed to social manipulation by a fraudster that the investigators understands includes meaning-making. The aim of this thesis is to highlight how investigators within banks strategically work to handle these frauds, where attention is on how their interpretations of romance and investment fraud influence their investigative and preventative strategies. Qualitative interviews have been conducted with fraud investigators, and the findings have been analyzed through a thematic analysis with an abductive approach. Theoretical connections have been drawn upon narrative theory, focusing on meaning-making and narrative stories that guide one's action. The essay is structured as follows: an introduction and background, followed by a literature review and theoretical framework. The methodological approach is then presented through which the results and analysis comes next. Lastly, the study concludes with a discussion. This thesis shows how the participants' investigative practices consist of narrative intervention, management of resistance and introducing alternative narratives. The preventative measures are understood as a way of influencing the customers interpretation of fraud. This study thus contributes to the current research field, as the investigators' perspectives become highlighted that in turn can benefit the fraud preventative work within other social actors.}},
author = {{Johnsson, Isabella}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{"You are going to change their perception of reality of what they believe is true" A narrative study of fraud investigators interpretation of Romance and Investment fraud.}},
year = {{2026}},
}