Scammers in China Fake Road Injuries, but Cameras Capture the Truth
There are scores of videos online that capture these scams, known in China as "pengci," or "porcelain bumping." The video
above, posted last month, shows a woman in Yongzhou, in the central province of Hunan, taking the scam to brash extremes.
Sinosphere By
DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
FEB. 21, 2017
BEIJING — The scam may be as old as the automobile itself: A fraudster throws himself in front of a vehicle and demands
that the driver pay for his self-inflicted (or nonexistent) injuries.
Mr. Schak said the scam was usually perpetrated by people who, "out of a combination of laziness, desperation
and being thick-skinned, will resort to it to try to make a buck, or a yuan," another term for China’s currency.
Quick!" Woman: "What, not even 20 renminbi?" (The driver apparently slips 20 renminbi, about $3, under the windshield wipers of the car.
The term "pengci" derives from the practice of dishonest shopkeepers placing a porcelain item in a spot where it was likely to get knocked over
and broken, allowing them to claim damages from the "clumsy" customer, said David Schak, an anthropologist at Griffith University in Australia.
After getting money from the driver of a car she had lain in front of, she boasts to bystanders and even does a little jig in front of the car.
