Faking your Car Accident??

    Faking your accident is one of the easiest tricks in the book to get money. Pedestrians walk in front of a car and basically throw themselves against a car and scream that they were “hit by a car”. However, technology is making it hard to pull off the scam. In China, you can find people trying to pull off this scam like no tomorrow. If you look on YouTube, you’ll find millions of videos of pedestrians faking an accident. In China, it’s known as “pengci” or “porcelain bumping”. Pengci “derives from the practice of dishonest shopkeepers placing a porcelain item in a spot where it was likely to get knocked over and broken, allowing them to claim damages from the “clumsy” customer.” In this New York Times article, they provide a video of women in Yongzhou, China carrying out this scam. She’ll wiggle her butt in from of the car and then lay on the floor until the drive gives her money. The woman in the video began using the person filming part of the act. She encourages the person to film her, and shout that she only earned 20 renminbi but in one hour she can make up to 250 renminbi. In November, another woman tried to pull off the act but the police dragged her away. In Nanning, a man throws himself a nonmoving bus until the police showed up. Some people have been serious injured (e.g broken bones) and some have even died. There are even “professional porcelain bumpers.” People who participate in porcelain bumping are not prosecuted. Chinese are tired of the trick and are embarrassed by these video cycling through the internet. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/world/asia/china-traffic-scam-fraud.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fasia&action=click&contentCollection=asia&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0