Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters

Cybercrimes are on the increase in China and ‘QQ’, an instant messenger platform, is frequently exploited for these crimes. Fraudsters manipulate language to deceive users into revealing their bank accounts or depositing sums in the cheats’ accounts. Employing the theoretical framework that includ...

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Main Authors:	Tan, Kim Hua, Guilani, Mohammad Abdollahi, Chen, Chenzi
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/1/17542-60013-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-12846
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-128462019-05-02T13:04:48Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/ Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters Tan, Kim Hua Guilani, Mohammad Abdollahi Chen, Chenzi Cybercrimes are on the increase in China and ‘QQ’, an instant messenger platform, is frequently exploited for these crimes. Fraudsters manipulate language to deceive users into revealing their bank accounts or depositing sums in the cheats’ accounts. Employing the theoretical framework that includes Speech Act Theory and Politeness Theory, the researchers attempted to identify the strategies used by such fraudsters. The subjects of this study included 50 interlocutors who had already chatted with different online cheats and had a record of their conversations. The data were collected and analysed on the basis of the type of discourse themes displayed. Findings indicated that the chats displayed various themes like Business Invitation, Money Transfer, Account Hacking and Online Shopping. In addition, the three levels of speech acts of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary were discernible and most fraudsters did not bother to address face threatening acts. In comparison to hoax email writers, the fraudsters in instant communication regularly came across as more aggressive and imperative, but then softened their diction if victims were not interested to chat with them in real time. The implications of this study lie in the possibility of developing a model for fraudster or cheat discourse structure, thus alerting QQ users in particular of such crimes. Other online instant messenger users will also benefit from this study. Better informed of how cheats manipulate language to present untruth as truth and be alerted of the modus operandi involved in online deception, victims can be saved and the crime curbed. The issue of the victim’s vulnerability and the reasons behind it certainly deserve further linguistic and metalinguistic scrutiny. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/1/17542-60013-1-PB.pdf Tan, Kim Hua and Guilani, Mohammad Abdollahi and Chen, Chenzi (2017) Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 23 (3). pp. 108-122. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1027
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Cybercrimes are on the increase in China and ‘QQ’, an instant messenger platform, is frequently exploited for these crimes. Fraudsters manipulate language to deceive users into revealing their bank accounts or depositing sums in the cheats’ accounts. Employing the theoretical framework that includes Speech Act Theory and Politeness Theory, the researchers attempted to identify the strategies used by such fraudsters. The subjects of this study included 50 interlocutors who had already chatted with different online cheats and had a record of their conversations. The data were collected and analysed on the basis of the type of discourse themes displayed. Findings indicated that the chats displayed various themes like Business Invitation, Money Transfer, Account Hacking and Online Shopping. In addition, the three levels of speech acts of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary were discernible and most fraudsters did not bother to address face threatening acts. In comparison to hoax email writers, the fraudsters in instant communication regularly came across as more aggressive and imperative, but then softened their diction if victims were not interested to chat with them in real time. The implications of this study lie in the possibility of developing a model for fraudster or cheat discourse structure, thus alerting QQ users in particular of such crimes. Other online instant messenger users will also benefit from this study. Better informed of how cheats manipulate language to present untruth as truth and be alerted of the modus operandi involved in online deception, victims can be saved and the crime curbed. The issue of the victim’s vulnerability and the reasons behind it certainly deserve further linguistic and metalinguistic scrutiny.
format	Article
author	Tan, Kim Hua Guilani, Mohammad Abdollahi Chen, Chenzi
spellingShingle	Tan, Kim Hua Guilani, Mohammad Abdollahi Chen, Chenzi Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters
author_facet	Tan, Kim Hua Guilani, Mohammad Abdollahi Chen, Chenzi
author_sort	Tan, Kim Hua
title	Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters
title_short	Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters
title_full	Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters
title_fullStr	Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters
title_full_unstemmed	Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters
title_sort	linguistic deception of chinese cyber fraudsters
publisher	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2017
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12846/1/17542-60013-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:03:31Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:03:31Z
_version_	1777407005862920192

Linguistic deception of Chinese cyber fraudsters

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