Telecommunication and cyber fraud victimization among Chinese college students: An application of routine activity theory

Analyzing survey data from 1037 college students in China, a country with the world's largest number of Internet users and the world's largest e-commerce market, the current study demonstrates that consistent with previous research, some routine telecom/cyber activities of Chinese college students predict higher odds of being targeted for telecom/cyber fraud, but online routines do not seem to predict the odds of completed victimization resulting in a financial loss. In contrast, the perceived presence of effective formal guardianship and target suitability exert a greater influence. These findings suggest that those previously and commonly used measures of routine activity theory are better suited for explaining attempted telecom/cyber fraud victimization, whereas completed victimization is chiefly predicted by target suitability such as risky/deviant online behaviors and low self-control.