The Geography of Scamming

This event can also be attended online but please register using our separate online event page.

This event has been organised by the Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime and the International Society of Economic Criminology. Please contact ccec@port.ac.uk with any queries.

This public lecture will explore the geographies of scamming examining some of the places where scamming is common, focusing upon two areas of the world where there are ‘small industries’ of scammers targeting the UK and other Western countries: West Africa and India. The Lecture will feature three prominent speakers who have researched this subject extensively, beginning with Professor Tim Hall from Winchester University exploring the geography of scamming. Then Dr Paul Gilmour will talk about scamming in India drawing upon a work package he led on India for a global overview of scam centres conducted by colleagues at the Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime. Finally Dr Suleman Lazarus will talk about scammers in West Africa drawing upon a number of studies he has been involved in.Chair: Professor Mark Button, Co-Director Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime

The Global Geography of Online Fraud

Professor Tim Hall, University of Winchester

Tim Hall is a Professor in the Department of Policing, Criminology and Forensics at the University of Winchester where he teaches several modules exploring many different aspects of crime and approaches to tackling and reducing it. He is a criminologist and geographer with research interests in organised crime, cybercrime and the geographies of crime and is the author of a number of books including The Economic Geographies of Organized Crime (2018) and Crime, Space and Place (with Richard Yarwood, forthcoming). His crime related research has also appeared in international journals including Progress in Human Geography, The Journal of Cyber Policy and Trends in Organized Crime. He is interested in the spatial aspects of online and offline crime and he has pioneered the application of geographical approaches to understanding and tackling cybercrime.

India’s call-centre scams: A neocolonial perspective on organized fraud

Dr Paul Gilmour, University of Portsmouth

Dr Paul Gilmour is Senior Lecturer in Economic Crime, course leader of the MSc Economic Crime (campus) degree, and lead of the Economic Crime Research Group at the University of Portsmouth. Prior to this, he served for nearly 20 years in the UK police service, most recently, as a detective specialising in criminal investigations. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Financial Crime and Journal of Money Laundering Control. He is involved in a range of research and teaching activities within economic crime and organised crime. His research focuses on corporate transparency, issues of financial secrecy, offshore jurisdictions, freeports, and beneficial ownership. He is intrigued with understanding the characteristics of offshore jurisdictions, the methods used to conceal beneficial ownership, and how governments and regulatory bodies attempt to control illicit offshore activities and markets. He also researches the role of blockchain technology in registers of beneficial ownership.

Anglophone West African Scammers

Dr Suleman Lazarus, Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics

Suleman is an Associate Editor for the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) journal “Digital Threats: Research and Practice.” Dr Lazarus serves as a Visiting Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He created the “Tripartite Cybercrime Framework (TCF),” categorising cybercrimes into socioeconomic, psychosocial, and geopolitical motivational groups. His scholarly works, primarily focusing on cybercriminals and society, have been featured in journals like “Deviant Behavior,” “Telematics and Informatics,” “Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking,” and “Current Issues in Criminal Justice.”