Broken Hearts (Lynsay Shepherd)

Broken Hearts is a prototype platform-based game with some RPG (role-playing game) elements focussed on providing romance fraud education.  It was created as part of the Tainted Love research project (team: Alex Bilz  - research assistant, Dr Lynsay A. Shepherd - supervisor, Prof Graham Johnson - supervisor).

Romance fraud is a form of social engineering whereby a scammer leads victims to believe they are in a trusting romantic relationship before requesting financial aid. Victims are often left emotionally and financially devastated. Law enforcement and dating platforms frequently run campaigns about romance fraud, explaining how to spot potential scammers; this information is often text-based and is not particularly engaging. The Broken Hearts prototype is an interactive application which seeks to educate the general public about romance fraud, its consequences, and how victims can get support.

Thus, Broken Hearts is a piece of exploratory work which considers how serious games can be used to educate the public about romance fraud.

The authors would like to thank the Scottish Funding Council and Abertay University Graduate School.