Purpose -Advance fee fraud on the internet is a current epidemic that rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The advent of the internet and proliferation of its use in the 1990s makes it an attractive medium for communicating the fraud, enabling a worldwide reach. This paper aims to explain how advance fee fraud operates, to examine various cases of recent advance fee-fraud e-mails, and to identify methods employed to manipulate victims into compliance based on theory in human behaviour and persuasion. Design/methodology/approach -This study uses six cases of advance fee fraud received via e-mail by the author between August 2006 and January 2007. The content of these e-mails was analysed in detail to identify the methods employed to manipulate the behaviour of victims. Findings -Interpretive findings suggest that advance fee fraudsters employ specific methods that exploit the bounded rationality and automatic behaviour of victims. Methods include assertion of authority and expert power, mimicking and referencing persons/organisations, providing partial proof/legitimacy, reasoning, reciprocation, creating urgency, and implying scarcity. Practical implications -While there is readily available information on advance fee fraud on the internet, especially in the web sites of anti-fraud organisations, this study suggests a need to inform internet users of the methods employed by advance fee fraudsters. Originality/value -Considering the current and widespread problem of advance fee-fraud e-mails, the information of this paper is important for internet users to improve their capability in identifying fraudulent schemes and avoiding them.

a b s t r a c tThe occupational structure in retail employment is known to be gendered, such that women tend to occupy 'softer' social roles, while men tend to occupy 'harder' physical and technical roles. This article presents an integrative model that illustrates the balance of KSAOs (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personality characteristics) and retail sectors between male and female retail employees, and explains how gender can signal employee qualities in the retail sector. The empirical analysis uses data from a survey of 702 respondents employed across 40 ANZSIC (Australian New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification) retail categories. Based on signalling theory, the findings suggest that an employee's gender can be an unintentional signal for unobservable qualities in retail employment, which has implications for customer service, human resource management, and gender discrimination.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain demographic influences on employee trust towards managers. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon a data set of over 5,000 responses from the Australian workforce, this paper examines demographic influences on employee trust in their managers. Findings The findings show that demographic influences have an effect on employee trust towards managers. Employees who are male, older, public sector, permanent, longer tenured and unionised were found to be less likely to trust managers. Practical implications Relevant to human resource practice, the findings offer potential for the development of trust by identifying employees who are less likely to trust managers. The expected outcome is that such employees can be selected for programmes and practices aimed at improving trust, such as increased managerial contact, consultation and support. Originality/value There has been a general decline of employee trust in managers over the past two decades. Research on the antecedents of trust has been reported to lag behind theory, with a paucity of research relating to demographic influences on employee trust towards managers. This study fills this research gap and offers potential for the targeted development of trust towards managers among employees.

PurposeInternet fraud is an epidemic that costs US$7.1 billion as of 2007. The advent of the internet and proliferation of its use makes it an attractive medium for communicating the fraud, particularly through the use of e‐mail. This paper aims to explain how victims of online fraud can be influenced by judgmental heuristics and cognition when they make nonnormative or sub‐optimal decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper will analyse the content of 14 recent fraud e‐mails to explain how victims of online fraud can be influenced from a psychological perspective, using theories of bounded rationality, judgmental heuristics and cognition.FindingsThe paper suggests that e‐mail fraudsters, whether intentionally or not, employ specific methods that correspond closely to how the human mind works within a context of bounded rationality. These methods have a propensity to exploit psychological blind spots in victims caused by selective perception and post‐decisional dissonance, as well as sub‐optimal or nonnormative responses in automatic behaviour due to the common use of heuristics (for example, representativeness, availability and affect) when making decisions in complex task environments.Originality/valueConsidering the current and widespread problem of online fraud, this paper is expected to inform and prepare internet users against such deception by offering a better understanding of how fraudsters can psychologically influence the way victims and potential victims make their decisions.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study job attitudes between unionized and non-unionized employees in Australia as recent research on attitudes among unionized employees has centred on topics such as attitudes towards unionization and involvement, but not on work-related attitudes. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a data set of over 5,000 responses from the Australia at Work survey. Ten attitudinal survey questions adapted from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey and the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes were used to compare work-related attitudinal differences between unionized and non-unionized employees. Findings Findings show that unionized employees perceive less manager–employee consultation, health and safety, dispensability, time flexibility, workload flexibility, managerial trust, fair treatment and pay equity. Originality/value Not much is known about the attitudinal differences between unionized and non-unionized employees, given the paucity of research on unionist job attitudes. Recent research in this area has centred on employee attitudes towards unionization and involvement as opposed to studying work-related attitudes. The findings can help the management predict behavioural responses between unionized and non-unionized employees for improved decision making.