Scams in modern societies: how does China differ from the world?

TL;DR

This paper analyzes high-profile scams in China, proposing a novel theoretical framework to understand their unique features and differences from Western scams, with implications for countermeasures.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical framework to examine psychological, situational, and social factors influencing scams in China, highlighting key differences from Western scams.

Findings

Chinese scams are uniquely engineered and socially contextualized.

The framework identifies specific psychological and social factors in Chinese scams.

Countermeasures tailored to these factors can improve scam prevention.

Abstract

We study a set of high-profile scams that were well engineered and have hit people hard in China in recent years. We propose a simple but novel theoretical framework to examine psychological, situational and social fabric factors that have played a role in these scams. We also use this framework as a tool to explore scam countermeasures. In so doing, we identify how these Chinese scams differ from their Western counterparts.