Online romance fraud (ORF) is a growing concern with such serious negative consequences as financial loss or suicide to the victim. Majority of empirical studies on online romance fraud using attachment, deception, protection motivation and relation theories focus on the victim. While neutralization offers insights into how individuals justify their deviant behaviors, the results have not been consistent in different contexts. In the ORF context, offenders may not only rely on justifying techniques but also rationalize their actions by denying risk both to the victim and the offender. Thus, drawing from the neutralization and denial of risk theories, we develop a research model to explain how online romance offenders justify and rationalize their intended criminal activities. To confirm our theoretical model, we collected 320 responses from individuals at Internet Cafés alleged to be online romance fraud hotspots. Our results highlight the boundary conditions of neutralization techniques in the context of online romance fraud. The study shows that denial of risk, a rationalization mechanism, moderates the relationship between denial of victim, a justification technique, and intention to commit romance fraud. This insight advances the frontiers of neutralization theory. We offer both theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

在线恋爱欺诈（ORF）引起了越来越多的关注，并带来了严重的负面后果，例如经济损失或受害者自杀。使用依恋，欺骗，保护动机和关系理论进行的在线恋爱欺诈的实证研究多数集中在受害者身上。尽管中和提供了有关个人如何证明其异常行为的见解，但结果在不同情况下并不一致。在ORF背景下，犯罪者不仅可以依靠证明技术，而且可以通过否认对受害者和犯罪者的风险来合理化其行为。因此，从风险理论的中和和否定出发，我们开发了一个研究模型来解释在线恋爱者如何证明其合理的犯罪活动并使其合理化。为了确认我们的理论模型，我们从网吧的个人那里收集了320条回应，这些人被称为在线恋爱欺诈热点。我们的结果突出了在线恋爱欺诈中的中和技术的边界条件。研究表明，拒绝风险是一种合理化的机制，可以缓和拒绝给予受害者，证明理由的技巧和进行恋爱欺诈的意图之间的关系。这种见解推动了中和理论的前沿。我们提供研究结果的理论和管理意义。证明技巧，并意图进行恋爱欺诈。这种见解推动了中和理论的前沿。我们提供研究结果的理论和管理意义。证明技巧，并意图进行恋爱欺诈。这种见解推动了中和理论的前沿。我们提供研究结果的理论和管理意义。