An Empirical Study of a Two-Sided Model of Fraudulent Exchange

Interpersonal fraud is a complex social action constituted by a series of dependent events and an accurate representation of this interaction requires the examination of both the victim and perpetrator in fraudulent exchanges. IS domain research on ecommerce provides behavioral models that can be used to describe a victim’s perspective on fraud in online commerce. Similarly, research in the accounting domain has developed the fraud triangle, a behavioral model that describes a perpetrator’s perspective in committing fraud. There is limited research exploring how the use of technology affects fraudulent behaviors despite a growing interest in studying computer mediated deception. We draw on research from the IS and accounting domains about the fraud triangle, e-commerce, and computer-mediated deception to develop a two-sided model that combines victim and perpetrator behaviors. The proposed model more accurately depicts the complex nature of the social exchanges between fraud victims and perpetrators that result in fraud.