Young Chinese Desperate for Jobs Become Targets for Scammers

People attending a job fair in Beijing on Aug. 26, 2022. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

Amid a bleak economy, young Chinese struggling to find jobs have fallen victim to scammers.

In one example, a teenager with a mental disability was allegedly manipulated into getting an expensive breast augmentation surgery so he could become an influencer.

In a video that recently went viral on Chinese social media, the 19-year-old’s mother said that her son, a desperate job seeker, was allegedly duped by a cosmetic surgery clinic into taking out a 30,000 yuan (roughly $4,200) loan for the surgery.

The woman accused the clinic of misleading her son by telling him that he could “make money through live streaming” after the surgery, according to the video.

“When our family heard the news, we were shocked and devastated, feeling as though the sky was falling,” she said in the video.

In another example, a 21-year-old university student named Ding recounted his experience to Chinese media outlet Southcn.com when he applied for a part-time delivery job with what was purported to be a delivery partner service center associated with Meituan, a well-known e-commerce company in China.

However, Ding was allegedly deceived into renting an electric bike for a year through installment payments.

When he discovered that his earnings from deliveries were insufficient to cover the bike rental fees, he decided to terminate the contract early, only to be hit with bills for repair costs due to alleged damage to the bike.

“It was then that I realized their so-called high-paying delivery job was just a scheme to force applicants into renting electric bikes at exorbitant rates,” he told the publication.

Such incidents have sparked widespread outrage among Chinese netizens.

“Job scams have developed into a well-established industry chain,” said one Weibo user.

Rising Youth Unemployment

Official data show the youth unemployment rate increased from 13.2 percent in June to 17.1 percent in July, the highest level this year. The age range is set between 16 and 24.

However, it is difficult to assess the true scale of the situation because the data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) only account for urban areas.

This closely watched indicator reached a historic high of 21.3 percent in June 2023. Since then, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adjusted the calculation method to exclude full-time students from the youth unemployment rate.

In June this year, nearly 12 million university students graduated in China, becoming job seekers in a highly competitive job market and potentially contributing to the sharp rise in the unemployment rate in July.

At a press conference on Aug. 15, Liu Aihua, spokesperson for the NBS, acknowledged the severe pressure on the youth employment market, stating that “in the next phase, the focus will be on prioritizing employment for young people, particularly university graduates.”

‘Pig Butchering’

The rising number of scams targeting students and recent graduates, coupled with bleak job prospects, has driven some young people to become scammers themselves.

Official data reveal that in the first 10 months of 2023, the number of youths under 18 prosecuted for phone and internet scams surged by 68 percent compared to the previous year.

One rampant cryptocurrency scam is called “pig butchering,“ a popular term on the Chinese internet, often orchestrated by overseas fraud rings, mainly targeting inland and overseas Chinese.

The scheme involves scammers establishing a trusting relationship with victims, called “pigs,” before convincing them to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency ventures.

Once the investment is made, the scammers cut off communication and disappear with the victims’ money, a move described as “butchering the pig.” Criminals engaging in this type of scam often use dating apps and social media platforms to find their targets.

Many of the scammers involved in pig butchering are victims themselves, predominantly from China and Southeast Asia.

According to a report published by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in August 2023, at least 220,000 people have been trafficked to Cambodia and Burma (also known as Myanmar) and forced to engage in online fraud.

In recent years, the impact of pig butchering has expanded from China and Southeast Asia to global proportions, including Europe and the United States.