On 5 November 2026 (9am GMT / 11am SAST), the SVRI TFGBV Community of Practice will host this webinar to explore the growing overlap between romance baiting and other forms of relationship-based cyberfraud, economic abuse, coercive control, sexual exploitation and technology-facilitated gender-based violence. While these forms of fraud are expanding rapidly across Africa, Asia and Latin America, their gendered dimensions remain poorly understood. Studies suggest that, on the one hand, perpetrators may exploit gendered scripts around intimacy, trust, care and sexuality, and that some cases escalate into sextortion, image-based abuse or other forms of coercion. On the other, organised crime networks use human trafficking and exploitation to sustain large-scale scams. The session will bring together research, legal and survivor perspectives to examine what we know about prevalence and pathways into harm, where important evidence gaps remain (particularly in low- and middle-income countries) and what this means for future research, prevention and response.

Register here.