Abstract
Objectives
Examine the level of engagement of young users with money mule recruitment ads on Instagram.
Methods
Three ads reflecting key cybercrime involvement mechanisms and targeting Dutch user clusters were run on two Instagram placements. By means of this quasi-experimental 3 × 2 factorial design, we were able to analyze the reach and views of the ads, click-through rates, gender of the participants, and temporal distributions of user engagement.
Results
Mimicking actual recruitment environments, analysis shows that up to 3% of young users engaged with the ads, especially those promoting a luxury lifestyle and using neutralization techniques. Men were more likely to engage, and click-through rates were higher at night.
Conclusions
Some young Instagram users seem prone to making money through their bank cards and risk becoming involved in cybercrime online. We encourage future research to explore further the use of social media in criminological studies.
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This work was funded by the Taskforce for Applied Research SIA of the Dutch Research Council (grant number RAAK.PUB06.032).
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Bekkers, L.M.J., Moneva, A. & Leukfeldt, E.R. Understanding cybercrime involvement: a quasi-experiment on engagement with money mule recruitment ads on Instagram. J Exp Criminol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-022-09537-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-022-09537-7