Does psychological distance and religiosity influence fraudulent customer behaviour?

Online businesses incur significant losses because of fraudulent customer behaviour. This study investigates the factors motivating fraudulent customer intention on eBay. A conceptual framework is developed that extends the theory of planned behaviour with religiosity factors, social detection risk, ethical judgement, and moderating factor of perceived psychological distance. A quantitative methodology is adopted that collects data from 450 respondents. Covariance-based structural equation modelling is used to analyse the proposed hypotheses. Results reveal that intrinsic and extrinsic religiously negatively influences attitude towards fraudulent customer behaviour on eBay. Attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control positively influence fraudulent customer intentions, while ethical judgement negatively impacts it. Psychological distance strengthened the relationship between attitude, perceived behavioural control, and fraudulent customer intentions on eBay. Additionally, the association between ethical judgement and fraud intention was weaker for individuals with higher perceived psychological distance. The study contributes to the literature and provides insights to online businesses and cyber security developers into factors motivating fraudulent customer behaviour and strategies that can be used to combat this growing threat.