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"Auntie, Please Don't Fall for Those Smooth Talkers": How Chinese Younger Family Members Safeguard Seniors from Online Fraud

Yue Deng, Changyang He, Yixin Zou, Bo Li

TL;DR

This paper investigates how younger family members in China safeguard seniors from online fraud, addressing a gap where prior work centered on seniors' perspectives. Using inductive thematic analysis of 124 RedNote posts and 16,872 comments, it identifies senior vulnerabilities, a multi-faceted family safeguarding toolkit (prevention, identification, persuasion, loss recovery, education), and the challenges faced by younger relatives. It proposes a conceptual framework of the family support ecosystem and discusses design, policy, and educational implications for platforms, educators, and practitioners. The findings highlight the role of filial piety and sociocultural factors in shaping interventions, emphasize long-term, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and call for interventions that balance elder autonomy with security.

Abstract

Online fraud substantially harms individuals and seniors are disproportionately targeted. While family is crucial for seniors, little research has empirically examined how they protect seniors against fraud. To address this gap, we employed an inductive thematic analysis of 124 posts and 16,872 comments on RedNote (Xiaohongshu), exploring the family support ecosystem for senior-targeted online fraud in China. We develop a taxonomy of senior-targeted online fraud from a familial perspective, revealing younger members often spot frauds hard for seniors to detect, such as unusual charges. Younger family members fulfill multiple safeguarding roles, including preventative measures, fraud identification, fraud persuasion, loss recovery, and education. They also encounter numerous challenges, such as seniors' refusal of help and considerable mental and financial stress. Drawing on these, we develop a conceptual framework to characterize family support in senior-targeted fraud, and outline implications for researchers and practitioners to consider the broader stakeholder ecosystem and cultural aspects.

"Auntie, Please Don't Fall for Those Smooth Talkers": How Chinese Younger Family Members Safeguard Seniors from Online Fraud

TL;DR

This paper investigates how younger family members in China safeguard seniors from online fraud, addressing a gap where prior work centered on seniors' perspectives. Using inductive thematic analysis of 124 RedNote posts and 16,872 comments, it identifies senior vulnerabilities, a multi-faceted family safeguarding toolkit (prevention, identification, persuasion, loss recovery, education), and the challenges faced by younger relatives. It proposes a conceptual framework of the family support ecosystem and discusses design, policy, and educational implications for platforms, educators, and practitioners. The findings highlight the role of filial piety and sociocultural factors in shaping interventions, emphasize long-term, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and call for interventions that balance elder autonomy with security.

Abstract

Online fraud substantially harms individuals and seniors are disproportionately targeted. While family is crucial for seniors, little research has empirically examined how they protect seniors against fraud. To address this gap, we employed an inductive thematic analysis of 124 posts and 16,872 comments on RedNote (Xiaohongshu), exploring the family support ecosystem for senior-targeted online fraud in China. We develop a taxonomy of senior-targeted online fraud from a familial perspective, revealing younger members often spot frauds hard for seniors to detect, such as unusual charges. Younger family members fulfill multiple safeguarding roles, including preventative measures, fraud identification, fraud persuasion, loss recovery, and education. They also encounter numerous challenges, such as seniors' refusal of help and considerable mental and financial stress. Drawing on these, we develop a conceptual framework to characterize family support in senior-targeted fraud, and outline implications for researchers and practitioners to consider the broader stakeholder ecosystem and cultural aspects.
Paper Structure (37 sections, 3 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 37 sections, 3 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Online Fraud and Anti-fraud
  4. Online Fraud and Seniors
  5. Family Dynamics in Safeguarding Seniors from Fraud
  6. Method
  7. Data Source
  8. Data Collection
  9. Data Processing
  10. Data Analysis
  11. Ethics Statement
  12. Findings
  13. RQ1: Senior-Targeted Online Fraud
  14. RQ2: Supportive Behaviors
  15. Prevention: The Involvement of Controlling Behaviors
  16. ...and 22 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: The analytical flow to understand younger family members' safeguarding against senior-targeted fraud.
  • Figure 2: An interface example of RedNote (translated from Chinese).
  • Figure 3: The conceptual framework of family support against senior-targeted fraud. The supportive behaviors are highlighted with the blue color and the challenges are showcased with the orange color.