Butcher or be butchered: understanding the unwitting recruitment by cybercrime groups in China

Abstract Due to advancements in technology in recent decades, profit-driven cybercrime has undergone significant changes. While the types of cybercrime have greatly expanded, leading to a shift in its definition, the methods of committing cybercrime have also evolved. Notably, cybercrime groups have begun to recruit ordinary law-abiding individuals to unwittingly participate in their operations. Although some studies have reviewed this phenomenon and examined how the recruitment process is carried out, little attention has been paid to understanding the reasons behind this shift. To address this gap in the literature, this paper examines the phenomenon of unwitting recruitment through the lens of cybercrime industrialisation. Using a qualitative research approach, 66 semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from diverse backgrounds related to cybercrime across various regions in China. Our empirical findings reveal that the industrialisation of cybercrime has lowered recruitment barriers for cybercrime groups and obscured the illegality of many crime-related processes, thereby enabling these groups to recruit unwitting law-abiding individuals. Combined with the active risk-management strategies employed by cybercrime groups, this has further reduced the risks associated with recruitment and successfully transitioned many law-abiding individuals from being “butchered” to becoming “butchers” themselves.