Author(s): Li Jiaxin

Abstract: This study employs conversation analysis to examine two authentic cases of institutional identity fraud, specifically telecom fraud involving impersonation of police officers and customer service. By transcribing and analyzing the discourse between the fraudster and the victims, this study explores the practices of the fraudster's identity construction in the different phases of institutional identity fraud. We demonstrate that the fraudster achieves explicit identity construction by directly clarifying the identity, or by performing identity verification in the beginning part of the fraud call. During the fraudulent phone call, the fraudsters use authoritative discourse and comprehension-check questions for identity construction during the fraudulent process.

Keywords: Identity Construction, fraudulent phone call, conversation analysis

Article Info: Received: 19 Aug 2025; Received in revised form: 17 Sep 2025; Accepted: 21 Sep 2025; Available online: 27 Sep 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.105.34