Power Imbalance in Online Dating Scams
In class, we’ve generally associated power in networks with economic or financial power, or how a person could gain their highest payoff by negotiating with their neighbors. Bargaining power however, is also affected by other external factors, such as emotions (think “The Ultimatum Game”). In the case of Audrey Elrod, her emotional vulnerability and situational ignorance made her susceptible to online con artists, known as Yahoo Boys, who manipulated her into illegally wiring thousands of dollars overseas.
Elrod was the quintessential target for a Yahoo Boy: she was a plain-looking, middle-aged divorcée who was terrified that she would spend the rest of her life alone. Her scammer, who claimed to be an oil rig worker by the name of Duke McGregor, exploited her weaknesses by showering her with compliments and listening to her sympathetically. He promised Elrod that if he had enough money, he and his son Kevin could meet with her in the U.S. where they could all be a family.
There was a large power imbalance between Elrod and McGregor because Elrod felt that she had no emotional outside options. If she didn’t obey McGregor’s orders and send money to him and Kevin, she believed he would leave her and she would never find another man to love her. She would be denied the son she always wanted but could never have, and her dream of a romanticized ideal life would ripped away from her. McGregor on the other hand, had many outside options. According to the article, he scammed multiple women, who were all equally if not more weak and emotionally vulnerable as Elrod. Because McGregor was connected to many weak neighbors, he was in a more powerful position emotionally and could convince Elrod, who was already unemployed and in very poor financial standing, to send him most of her income in addition to completing wiring fraud. Elrod agreed to unequal terms because living in poverty and committing crimes with the false promise of a family was a better option than being financially stable and alone.
An individual’s power relies on any number of factors, but the ability to exploit psychological and emotional weaknesses can help him or her create a dramatic shift in the balance of power in any relationship. With the prominence of online dating, more and more people are creating intimate connections with strangers in an ambiguous virtual environment, priming unfortunate victims like Audrey Elrod to believe that money can buy love.
Source: http://www.wired.com/2015/10/online-dating-made-woman-pawn-global-crime-plot/