With a focus on the online phenomena of scamming and scambaiting, this article explores users’ communicative activities on Reddit’s r/scambait subreddit. Drawing on a representative corpus viewed through grounded theory, we establish the basic categories of posts and then unpack those further to reveal the deceptive practices being undertaken by both scammers and scambaiters, as well as Redditors’ untruthfulness in their fabricated posts. The analysis reveals that the r/scambait subreddit exists as a site of humorous entertainment arising from various forms of deception. Scammers’ deceptive strategies are depicted as amusingly naïve and inefficient, while scambaiters’ deceptive messages targeted at scammers demonstrate great creativity and wittiness. In both cases, scammer-victims are disparaged for being immensely gullible or downright stupid; and Redditors earn online plaudits for submitting the most upvoted posts. Our significant finding is that posts such as those at r/scambait should never be taken at face value due to their inherent epistemological ambiguity, to which the users choose to remain oblivious or indifferent. Furthermore, on a general plane, this study indicates a potential shift in the emic understanding of the concept of “scambaiting” from a punitive measure and an educational instrument to a creative practice geared toward posters’ kudos and users’ joint humorous experience through “baitertainment” and “scamusement.”

本文重点关注网络诈骗和诈骗的现象，探讨用户在 Reddit 的 r/scambait subreddit 上的交流活动。借鉴通过扎根理论查看的代表性语料库，我们建立了帖子的基本类别，然后进一步解开这些类别，以揭示诈骗者和诈骗者的欺骗行为，以及 Redditor 在他们伪造的帖子中的不真实性。分析表明，r/scambait subreddit 是一个由各种形式的欺骗引起的幽默娱乐网站。诈骗者的欺骗策略被描述为幼稚且低效，而诈骗者针对诈骗者的欺骗性信息则表现出极大的创造力和机智。在这两种情况下，诈骗受害者都被贬低为非常容易上当受骗或彻头彻尾的愚蠢；和 Redditors 因提交最受好评的帖子而获得在线喝彩。我们的重要发现是，诸如 r/scambait 之类的帖子由于其固有的认识论模糊性而永远不应被视为表面价值，而用户选择对此视而不见或漠不关心。此外，在一般层面上，这项研究表明，对“欺骗”概念的主位理解可能发生转变，从惩罚措施和教育工具转变为一种创造性的实践，通过“诱饵娱乐”，面向海报的荣誉和用户的共同幽默体验。 ”和“骗局”。用户选择对此视而不见或漠不关心。此外，在一般层面上，这项研究表明，对“欺骗”概念的主位理解可能发生转变，从惩罚措施和教育工具转变为一种创造性的实践，通过“诱饵娱乐”，面向海报的荣誉和用户的共同幽默体验。 ”和“骗局”。用户选择对此视而不见或漠不关心。此外，在一般层面上，这项研究表明，对“欺骗”概念的主位理解可能发生转变，从惩罚措施和教育工具转变为一种创造性的实践，通过“诱饵娱乐”，面向海报的荣誉和用户的共同幽默体验。 ”和“骗局”。