“My Parents’ Expectations Were Overwhelming”: Online Dating Romance Scams Targeting Minors in Iran Through Exploitation of Parental Pressure

Paper Title

“My Parents’ Expectations Were Overwhelming”: Online Dating Romance Scams Targeting Minors in Iran Through Exploitation of Parental Pressure

Publication Info

• Topic area: Online dating romance scams targeting minors in non-Western contexts.
• Keywords: Online dating, romance scams, minors, Iran, parental pressure, cultural vulnerability, sextortion, grooming, technology-mediated harm, digital resilience.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing research on romance scams focuses predominantly on middle-aged adults in Western countries, neglecting minors in non-Western contexts where cultural norms around teenage marriage and parental pressure may heighten vulnerability.
• Significance: Minors in Iran face unique risks due to cultural expectations of early marriage, academic performance, and strict parental oversight, which scammers exploit to coerce victims into financial and sexual favors.
• Motivation and related work: Prior studies have examined grooming, sexual solicitation, and cyberbullying targeting minors, but have not addressed romance scams in restrictive cultural contexts. This paper bridges that gap by exploring how scammers exploit cultural dynamics in Iran.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Episodic narrative interviews with 16 adult victims of online dating romance scams experienced during their adolescence in Iran.
• Novelty:
  1. Framing romance scams targeting minors as a distinct form of technology-mediated harm.
  2. Highlighting the interplay between cultural dynamics and scammers’ strategies.
  3. Offering design implications for digital resilience in socio-technical ecosystems.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Recruitment through Instagram and personal networks due to limited formal infrastructure.
  • Interviews conducted remotely via text or voice on social media platforms.
  • Analysis using reflexive thematic analysis to uncover themes related to cultural pressures and scam strategies.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Scammers exploited cultural pressures around early marriage, academic achievement, and parental oversight.
  • Victims were coerced into financial and sexual favors through threats, lies, and emotional manipulation.
  • Post-scam impacts included severe mental health issues, such as anxiety, insomnia, and suicide attempts.
• Advantage over baselines: Unlike prior studies focused on adult victims in Western contexts, this study provides insights into minors’ experiences in a non-Western cultural setting, emphasizing the role of local norms in scam dynamics.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Sample: 16 participants aged 14–17 during the scam, recruited from urban and rural areas in Iran.
  • Methods: Episodic narrative interviews analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.
  • Metrics: Qualitative themes related to scam stages, cultural dynamics, and post-scam impacts.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Memory recall bias due to retrospective interviews.
  • Sampling bias from social media-based recruitment.
  • Limited generalizability; future work should explore broader samples and other non-Western contexts.

Summary

This study investigates online dating romance scams targeting minors in Iran, revealing how scammers exploit cultural pressures around early marriage, academic achievement, and strict parental oversight to coerce victims into financial and sexual favors. Through episodic narrative interviews with 16 victims, the research highlights the interplay between cultural dynamics and scam strategies, emphasizing the need for culturally informed interventions. Findings suggest that digital resilience can be fostered through peer and sibling support, participatory approaches, and trauma-informed computing principles. Future work should explore broader cultural contexts and long-term impacts on victims.