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