Identity construction of suspects in telecom and internet fraud discourse: from a sociosemiotic perspective

ABSTRACT

As a new kind of contactless crime, the telecom and internet fraud has become a public hazard, with criminals targeting massive numbers of innocent victims. It is a prominent criminal problem that currently affects social stability and the sense of security of the public. Since the six Ministries and Commissions jointly cracked down the crime in 2016, the number of cases and the number of people deceived have decreased, but the occurrence and frequency has still been at a high rate, and the situation is deteriorating. Regardless of the scientific and technological means used by fraudsters, the main medium is language. From a sociosemiotic perspective, this study identifies that the criminal suspects use the discourse resources to fabricate false information and construct false identities through discursive practice, with the aim of achieving the communicative purpose of obtaining victims’ trust, tricking, deceiving and manipulating their victims into giving out confidential information and funds. This study, taking telecom fraud discourse as one type of genre, examines the dynamic process of selecting and constructing identities by manipulating related discourse resources and strategies in the social-cultural context. This study further provides a sociosemiotic solution to telecom fraud prevention.

KEYWORDS:

• Telecom and internet fraud
• genre
• identity
• dynamic construction
• sociosemiotics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ning Ye is Senior Research Fellow at Center for Legal Discourse and Translation, Zhejiang University, and Professor at Zhejiang Police College, Director of Centre for Police discourse and Behaviour Research. She holds a PhD in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Zhejiang University, where she specialized in Forensic Linguistics. She is an Asia Advisor of International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. She was a Visiting Scholar of Centre for Forensic Linguistics of Aston University, UK. Her research interests are language and law, semiotics, English for specific purposes with a particular focus on policing and discourse analysis.

Le Cheng, Wei Shaoxiang Chair Professor, is a concurrent professor at School of International Studies and Guanghua Law School at Zhejiang University. He is currently Associate Dean of School of International Studies, Director of Institute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Director of Center for Legal Discourse and Translation and Director of Center for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies at Zhejiang University. Additionally, he is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Legal Discourse and Acting President of Multicultural Association of Law and Language. His main research interests include semiotics, language and law, terminology, and discourse studies.

Yun Zhao is Henry Cheng Professor in International Law at the Department of Law, the University of Hong Kong. He is currently Head of Department of Law. He is also Chair Professor (Special Scheme) with Tianjin University of Economics and Finance. He holds a PhD in International Law from Erasmus University Rotterdam, an LLM in Public International Law from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and an LLM and LLB from China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. His research interests are Space Law, Dispute Resolution, and International Law.

Notes

1 For more detailed information, please refer to the website of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China: https://supremepeoplescourtmonitor.com/category/big-data/ (Accessed 28 November 2018).

2 For more detailed information, please refer to the website of Chinapeace: http://www.chinapeace.gov.cn/2016-12/09/content_11385617.htm (Accessed 29 November 2018).

3 For more detailed information, please refer to the website of 360: http://zt.360.cn/1101061855.php?dtid=1101061451&did=490024605 (Accessed 23 March 2018).

4 For more detailed information, please refer to the website of Zhejiang Online: http://zjrb.zjol.com.cn/html/2017-08/21/content_3075802.htm?div=-1 (Accessed 29 November 2018).

5 For more detailed information, please refer to the website of China News: http://www.chinanews.com/sh/2016/11-11/8059585.shtml (Accessed 22 January 2018).

6 See Provisions on the procedures for handling public criminal cases by public security organs (2012 Amendment Version), issued by Ministry of Public Security, P. R. China.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation under Grant 15BYY012, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.