Development of a Scale to Measure Cybercrime-Awareness on Social Media

This study developed a psychometric scale to measure users’ cybercrime awareness level on social media. Psychometric properties of the Cybercrime Awareness on Social Media Scale (CASM-S) were tested based on data collected from 1045 social media users. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with principal components analysis was used to identify the underlying factor structure of the scale (N = 545). The results revealed that the scale has a unidimensional factor structure. The scale was found to have a high internal reliability (α = .957). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to verify factor structure of the CASM-S (N = 500). Results revealed that the one-factor model fits the data well (x2/DF = 2.757, CFI = .939, SRMR = .0366, RMSEA = .059). Further, the study evaluated the concurrent validity of the scale (r = .855, p < .001). The findings revealed that the CASM-S is a reliable and valid tool to measure users’ cybercrime awareness level on social media.