How engagement in internet fraud impact academic activities of undergraduate students in Nigeria: A socio-legal study

Abstract

This study examined how engagement in internet fraud by undergraduate students impact their academic activities. Specifically, we examined the factors that drive the engagement of undergraduate students in internet fraud, how engagement in internet fraud activities affect their academic activities, and how they navigate their academic challenges to achieve academic objectives. We conducted this study between 2020 and 2022 and relied on both quantitative and qualitative data. 400 questionnaire instruments were randomly administered to students of four purposively selected tertiary institutions to gauge their perception of engagement in internet fraud activities among undergraduate students. We then relied on snowball sampling and semi-structured interview to elicit responses from sampled respondents. The respondents cut across five tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Analysis was done using Microsoft excel spread sheet for the quantitative data and inductive analysis for the qualitative data. We found that pressure from peers, failure of traditional morality/ethics gatekeepers, among others, are major drivers of engagement in internet fraud among undergraduate students, and that to navigate academic challenges and achieve academic objectives, they unethically induce some fellow students and staff.