EmTrust
Embedding Trust and Security in Online Relationships
Online romance scams targeting older individuals are predicted to have a 75% year-on-year surge, driven by scammers exploiting the needs and vulnerabilities and of the older people online coupled with easy access to sophisticated technologies.
EmTrust is an end-to-end B2B verification and safety service enhancing security on dating sites and social media platforms. By leveraging horizon scanning and cross-platform intelligence, it improves scam prevention, effectively minimising scammers' contact with older users seeking companionship online.
Even if we onboard 1 Dating Platform and reduce the number of Fraudulent Profiles by 10%, we could protect 0.5 Million customers from harm.
project associations
Timeline
May 2024- Feb 2024
Project category
Service Design
Project sector
Social Innovation
MY CONTRIBUTION (GROUP OF 3)
Took lead in designing the user experience of the digital product integrations
In charge of the final presentation videos
Took lead in a number of expert and user interviews
Romance Scams
Verification
Online Saefty
Older People
context & the problem
The project began with our decision to create an impact in the area of cybersecurity. We researched various scams that occur through online channels and ultimately narrowed our focus to romance scams. This decision was driven by the prevalence of romance scams and their significant impact on a particular overlooked group - the older population.
what are romance scams?
Romance scams occur when a fraudster adopts a fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust. The scammer then uses the illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and steal wealth from the victim.
older people at target
Those between 55-74 are most likely to be targeted due to factors like social isolation, accumulated wealth and strong desire for companionship.
the problem in numbers
The following video depicts how a typical romance scam unfolds! (Video Created & Edited by me on Adobe After Effects)
Helen is 1 of 7659 other victims living in the UK who fell victim to Romance Scams in 2023 alone
THEORY OF CHANGE
In case you're short on time, the following chart summarises our overall intent through the project.
research findings & focus area
When narrowing our focus to romance scams, we took a deep dive into the topic. I was involved in gathering multiple case studies, mapping the end-to-end journey of how a scam unfolds to identify patterns, conducting guerrilla research, and engaging in expert interviews. This thorough investigation enabled us to develop a comprehensive understanding of the problem space.
research methods & process
Analysing 13+ case studies of romance scam victims
To understand victim's needs, frustrations & scam experience journeys
14 In-depth interviews with older people
To understand their desires and frustrations via Guerrilla research and finding participants via Bumble & Hinge (popular dating platforms)
4 1:1 interviews with romance scam victims
Contacted them via support charities to understand their first hand experience & the aftermath
4 expert interviews with elderly charities and romance scam support groups
To understand the kind of support they provide, current gaps in the system & challenges faced in providing support to victims
2 expert interviews with fraud prevention experts from banks
Experts from Barclays & Nationwide explained Existing security mechanisms; Existing redressal mechanisms & Future Efforts to reduce scams
1 expert interview with a product owner from a Spark Network (SilverSingles, Elite Singles, ChristianMingle)
To understand User Engagement; Existing security mechanisms & Existing redressal mechanisms of these channels
KEY FINDINGS
Hence, prevention at source was crucial because it spares victims the emotional distress, financial loss, and trauma that can be very difficult to remedy later. Timely cross system action can also disrupt scammers' operations, reducing the overall damage of these scams.
FOCUS AREA
Hence,
How might we increase the barriers for scammers to reach and defraud older people to ensure a more safer and secure online dating and social experience?
and
How might we enable the cross-stakeholder collaboration and action to increase the effectiveness of fraud prevention?
ideation & prioritisation
After identifying the stage of the scam we wanted to address and the key stakeholders involved, we utilized collaborative ideation methods to generate multiple service concepts. By building upon these initial ideas, we were able to coalesce a few promising service directions.
role play ideation workshop
To generate bias free ideas we invited our classmates for a role play workshop where they represented different stakeholders of the system- police, charities, victims, scammer, CEO of a dating platform and the bank. The following questions were presented to them based on which they generated ideas:
HMW strengthen the protection mechanisms of social networking platforms and dating channels to prevent fraudsters from reaching their targets?
HMW get social media channels and dating platforms to take more accountability for the safety of their customers thereby protecting them from romance scams?
HMW empower people to identify red flags and verify their suspicion when communicating with strangers online?
HMW facilitate evidence collection and amplify their voice of the to raise awareness and seek justice?
Post the workshop, we did an Affinity Mapping Exercise amongst our team to see what themes emerge from the generated ideas.
brainstorming service directions
After deriving themes from the ideas generated in the workshop we individually brainstormed how these could be converted into different service propositions. After discussions and building upon each others ideas, we came up with three routes that we could take to solve the problem at hand.
A further round of discussion with experts from charities & the faculty and a prioritisation exercise helped us refine the service direction, taking most effective aspects of the different directions forward.
SERVICE PROPOSITION
Through collaborative efforts, our team was able to overcome differences in opinion by employing voting and prioritization activities, including methods like "rose buds and thorns," which helped us maintain a constructive focus on the ideas rather than personal perspectives.
introducing emtrust
EmTrust is a end-to-end B2B verification and safety service enhancing security on dating sites and social media platforms.
By leveraging cross-platform intelligence, it improves scam prevention, effectively minimising scammers' contact with older users seeking companionship online
service offerings
how does emtrust work?
This short clip shows how Emtrust offers a holistic safety mechanism by typing up with dating/ social media channels. (Video created and edited by me!)
ENABLERS & BARRIERS
Grounding our proposition in thorough research and evidence instills confidence in the viability of the proposed service. However, we have also identified several key challenges that will require our focused attention as we work to bring this initiative to reality.
business intent & impact
To further strengthen the viability of the service, we have established key partnerships that will be crucial to its success. Additionally, we clearly articulated the specific impact we envision this service will have.
partenerships & customers
We will enter the market by onboarding older adult dating sites like Silver Singles and Senior Match followed by the others. In the future we will expand to social media platforms.
For the success of our solution and for us to build trust and credibility we will partner with regulators like Ofcom along with charities, and official stakeholders like the police.
the impact
testing & LEARNINGS
To validate our work, we took the project to be tested by the experts who had been collaborating with us, as well as the end users themselves. This allowed us to identify areas for improvement and gauge the overall desirability of the proposed offering.
testing the service
We tested and discussed the proposed service with dating channel users in general, older people and also with the charities and experts we had been in contact with to get their feedback.
way forward
Going forward, the following next steps will have to be adopted in order to launch the service in market.
LEARNINGS & REFLECTIONS
Get in touch
Discovering the ground truth was crucial and humbling
Speaking to people helped us debunk a lot of the preconceived notions we went into research with like inaccessibility of digital platforms for older people and absence of any concrete action from banks. Conducting on-ground primary research revealed the actual truth.
Modern day research requires exploring innovative channels
On being unable to find research participants, we resorted to talking to people whom we found on dating channels like Bumble and Hinge. We made authentic profiles on these platforms, explicitly mentioning our purpose of research & were glad to find a lot of them showing interest in speaking to us and sharing their experience.
Being mindful of unintended consequences
While coming up with each of the features, the key thing to keep in mind was not adding too much friction to the experience of genuine users. Taking charge of designing the user flow, I made sure that the reason behind each of the additional checks is being communicated transparently and designed in a way that the user tasks are bare minimum.
Let's get Designing !
ayushi.saxena@network.rca.ac.uk
