
How do perpetrators of investment fraud dupe their victims? Bypassing the perceived need to conduct due diligence has become the stock and trade of investment scammers. This study reinforces the five fraud language construct of Lee, Cummings, and Martin (2019) by investigating over 10,000 litigation releases published by the Securities and Exchange Commission between 1995 and 2019. Using Semantria for Excel, this paper employs exploratory analysis of qualitative data to strengthens the five fraud language profile. It compares original and improved narratives by optimizing frequencies and sentiment of key phrases identified by the Semantria software. This work concludes by discussing limitations, implications, and future research possibilities.
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