Here’s the paper’s central tension: only ten percent of students thought cyber fraud was likely to happen to them, but about half said they felt afraid of it. Fear and perceived risk are not the same thing. Cyber fraud has surfaced as a serious social problem in China, resulting in billions of Chinese yuan worth of financial losses in recent years.

Based on survey data from over 1000 university students in China, the study explores the prevalence of fear and perceived risk of cyber fraud and their correlates among university students. The key descriptive result is a sharp contrast: only 10% believed they would likely experience cyber fraud victimization in the next 12 months, while approximately 50% reported feeling fearful in the past 3 months.

The logistic regression results show that fear and perceived risk are influenced by different domains of risk factors. Perceived risk is linked to vicarious victimization experiences, perceived crime seriousness, and satisfaction with the police. The Internet has become an inseparable part of human life, with the number of Internet users exceeding 5 billion worldwide.

While the virtual world provides many conveniences to Internet users, it also exposes them to offenders who access the Internet for criminal opportunities. Cybercrime has grown exponentially in the past decades, with cyber fraud frequently covered by the media as the fastest-growing cybercrime.

Cyber fraud refers to fraudulent activities where the Internet or other information and communication technologies are abused to illegally extract financial gains or personal information from service providers or their customers. Drawing upon survey data from 1065 university students in Guizhou, China, the study assesses the prevalence and correlates of university students’ fear of cyber fraud in China.

The literature mainly focuses on trends, patterns, new techniques, and potential risk factors related to cyber fraud and victimization. Public perceptions of cyber fraud remain under-researched. Studying fear of cyber fraud can assist in developing more effective policies and practices to enhance public alert and defensiveness, as well as encourage help-seeking.

The limited existing studies on perceptions of cyber fraud drew primarily on samples from developed nations, with little attention to developing countries. This study focuses on China, which has witnessed a rapid increase in cyber fraud since 2017 and has passed legislation to deal with cyber fraud.

Studying Chinese perceptions of and experiences with cyber fraud extends the existing literature to non-Western, developing countries. Public perceptions of cyber fraud in China, including fear of cyber fraud, remain largely under-explored. At the societal level, excessive public fear of crime may erode public trust in the government and criminal justice institutions, which is critical to social stability.

At the individual level, fear is a double-edged sword: it may translate into alertness, defensiveness, and help-seeking, but persisting fear is correlated with anxiety and poor mental health outcomes. There is a genuine need to understand fear of cyber fraud while managing its adverse effects.

The current study explores fear of cyber fraud among the youthful population in China, an important demographic group given its disproportionately high rate of cyber fraud victimization. In addition to fear, the study examines perceived risk of cyber fraud. Some studies found that crime fear and the cognitive perception of victimization risk are related, while others found them to be distinct concepts.

Research has not consistently documented the factors that influence fear as opposed to perceived risk, prompting further inquiry. Based on the literature review, the study tests hypotheses using a sample of 1065 university students from China. The first hypothesis is that individuals who are physically, socially, or psychologically vulnerable are more likely to report fear of cyber fraud.

The second hypothesis is that individuals who consider cyber fraud to be more serious in the community are more likely to report fear of cyber fraud. The third hypothesis is that individuals who report less satisfaction with the police are more likely to report fear of cyber fraud.

The fourth hypothesis is that perceived risk of cyber fraud is predicted by the same factors as fear of cyber fraud. Survey data were collected from university students at two universities in Guizhou Province of China in December 2021. The survey went through a strict review process and was approved by Guizhou University of Finance and Economics.

Guizhou is located in southwest China and has a population of 34.7 million. Before officially administering the survey, the study used an online pilot test with 159 undergraduate students at the second university. Based on respondents’ answers and feedback, the survey questions were revised to make them easier to comprehend.

The researchers selected 7 undergraduate classes at the first university and 12 undergraduate and graduate classes at the second university. Students were informed that participation was voluntary and anonymous, and the instructors were asked to leave the classroom while students filled out the survey.

A total of 1128 students completed the survey, while 5 students refused to participate. Ten surveys contained invalid responses and were discarded, leaving a sample size of 1113 and an effective response rate of 98.7%. After selecting the relevant variables and removing missing cases, the final sample for analysis stood at 1065.

The average age of the sample was 20.92, and about two-thirds, or 66.7%, were male. Fear of cyber fraud was measured with one survey item asking, “How worried are you about being a victim of cyber fraud?” The question referred to the past 3 months, and response categories ranged from “very worried” to “not at all worried.”

The preliminary analysis showed that the assumption of parallel lines for ordered logistic regression was violated. As a result, the study dichotomized the variable for binary logistic regression, with one representing “very worried” and “somewhat worried,” and zero representing the remaining categories.

Perceived risk of cyber fraud was measured by asking respondents to estimate the likelihood of being a victim in the next 12 months. Responses used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1, very likely, to 5, very unlikely. The preliminary analysis showed that the assumption of parallel lines for ordered logistic regression was violated.

The variable was therefore dichotomized, with one representing “very likely” and “somewhat likely,” and zero representing otherwise. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS twenty-seven point zero. First, descriptive statistics were performed and presented.

Because fear of cyber fraud and perceived risk of cyber fraud were dichotomous after transformation, binary logistic regression analyses were selected. The first regression model identified correlates of fear, and the second explored factors influencing perceived risk.

Table 1 summarizes all variables for one thousand sixty-five respondents, including the two cyber-fraud outcomes and measures of vulnerability, community disorder, and institutional confidence. Half reported fear of cyber-fraud victimization during the past three months, while the mean perceived risk measure was .10, with both variables coded from zero to one.

The table also reports distributions for behaviors, social ties, prior vicarious victimization, demographics, perceived seriousness of cyber fraud, and satisfaction with police, establishing the sample’s descriptive baseline for later analyses. Table 1 shows that 50% of respondents reported feeling fearful of being a victim of cyber fraud during the past 3 months.

The same sentence reports that 10% expressed that they were likely to experience cyber fraud victimization in the next 12 months. Table 2 reports binary logistic regressions for fear of cyber fraud victimization and perceived risk among one thousand sixty-five respondents.

For fear, downloading and using Wi-Fi cracking apps is associated with an odds ratio of 1.22, while being male is associated with .59; for perceived risk, vicarious victimization experiences has an odds ratio of 1.11 and perceived seriousness of cyber fraud, 1.41. Both models are statistically significant, with Nagelkerke R-squared values of .06 and .09, respectively.

Table 2 presents the results from logistic regressions, and Model 1 exhibited excellent model fit with a model chi-squared value of 46.13 and a p-value below .000. Three variables predicted fear of cyber fraud victimization: high self-control, downloading and using Wi-Fi cracking apps, and being male.

Lower levels of self-control were associated with a lower likelihood of reporting fear of cyber fraud, with an odds ratio of .95. Downloading and using Wi-Fi cracking software was connected to higher odds of fear of cyber fraud, with an odds ratio of 1.22; compared with male respondents, female respondents were more likely to report greater fear, with an odds ratio of .59.

Among these Chinese university students, fear and perceived risk followed different patterns: fear was associated with self-control, Wi-Fi-cracking behavior, and gender, while perceived risk was linked to other risk factors. That distinction matters for prevention.