Bizarre virtual kidnapping in Australia highlights risk to Chinese students

  • Lennon Chang

Press/Media: Expert Comment

Description

Chang, considered a leading international expert on the scams, says that because of the stigma associated with being a victim of the scam, it is almost certainly underreported.

The scam has been so successful, he says, because it manipulates common fears and beliefs.

He himself has received calls, trying to play along with the scammers long enough to glean information for his research, but they just hung up on him.

Students of his were not so lucky. They told him they had been targeted in such scams, and that their parents had paid ransoms, but they had never reported the offences to authorities.

“They feel stupid,” he says. “They feel: ‘how can you be scammed? How can you believe those people?’ But they were educated, since they were a kid: obey the authorities.”

Period26 Sept 2020

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitleBizarre virtual kidnapping in Australia highlights risk to Chinese students
    Degree of recognitionInternational
    Media name/outletGuardian
    Media typeWeb
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Date26/09/20
    DescriptionChang, considered a leading international expert on the scams, says that because of the stigma associated with being a victim of the scam, it is almost certainly underreported. The scam has been so successful, he says, because it manipulates common fears and beliefs. He himself has received calls, trying to play along with the scammers long enough to glean information for his research, but they just hung up on him. Students of his were not so lucky. They told him they had been targeted in such scams, and that their parents had paid ransoms, but they had never reported the offences to authorities
    Producer/AuthorNino Bucci
    URLhttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/26/bizarre-virtual-kidnapping-in-australia-highlights-risk-to-chinese-students
    PersonsLennon Chang

Keywords

  • virtual kinapping
  • Online scam
  • cybercrime