Explore the Causes of Crime and Social Impact of Romance Fraud in Mainland China from 2019–2021

Yan, Yiwen (2024) — Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research

Tags: romance fraud, pig-butchering scam, telecommunications fraud, online dating, social media, China, secondary data, fraud prevention

Synopsis (AI-Generated)

This is a secondary-data, descriptive sociological and criminological analysis. The author collated mainland Chinese news-media reports on romance fraud from 2019-2021 and summarized reported victim age, gender, initial contact channels, and scam progression. The discussion interprets these observations using functionalism, social disorganization, anomie, and relationship-trust literature. Scammers may freeze accounts and demand further investment to unblock them before disappearing with the money. Romance fraud can result in loss of assets, borrowing, heavy debt, lower living standards, and reduced life satisfaction. The paper explicitly characterizes its news dataset as incomplete.

Identified Gaps (AI-Generated)

The study itself relies on “uncomprehensive news data,” leaving uncertainty about the representativeness of its estimates. Its finding that most victims were male conflicts with unspecified internet information, indicating a need for stronger demographic evidence. The paper also identifies deficiencies in platform identity review, internet supervision, legal rules for telecommunications fraud, and public anti-fraud awareness.

Methods (AI-Generated)

This is a secondary-data, descriptive sociological and criminological analysis. The author collated mainland Chinese news-media reports on romance fraud from 2019–2021 and summarized reported victim age, gender, initial contact channels, and scam progression. The discussion interprets these observations using functionalism, social disorganization, anomie, and relationship-trust literature.

Limitations (AI-Generated)

The paper explicitly characterizes its news dataset as incomplete. Media reports are not shown to be representative of all romance-fraud cases, and the text does not specify sampling, case-selection criteria, dataset size, coding procedures, or statistical tests. Findings on age, gender, and platform use should therefore be treated as descriptive indications rather than reliable population estimates.

Future Work (AI-Generated)

Future research should use more complete and systematic data to test victim demographics, gender patterns, platform pathways, and the duration of fraud. It should also evaluate whether stronger platform identity verification, anti-fraud publicity, vocational support, and legal or regulatory reforms reduce romance-fraud victimization.

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The synopsis and research notes on this page were generated with AI from available publication information and, when available, the uploaded paper text. They may contain errors, omissions, or interpretation issues. Readers should follow the DOI or source link, review the original publication, and make their own judgment about the content.

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