Sha Zhu Pan (杀猪盘, Pig-Butchering scam) is a new online romance scam targeting mainly Chinese-speaking individuals. While a few studies in Chinese have paid attention to Sha Zhu Pan, no study in English considers the role of scammers’ persuasive techniques in shaping the progress of fraudulent discourse. This study attempts to address this gap by analyzing the rhetorical moves of the Sha Zhu Pan scammers through using data from both victims and offenders. Victims’ testimonial data were collected from Zhihu, a prominent Chinese online platfo...
