On the Definition of the Behavior of Replacing QR Codes

Abstract

In recent years, some criminals have obtained others’ property by replacing QR codes, which has sparked fierce debates on the nature of such acts. The controversy over defining the nature of these property-related cases mainly revolves around fraud and theft. Existing theories primarily include the general fraud theory, triangular fraud theory, new triangular fraud theory, indirect principal theory of theft, and ordinary theft theory. During the crime, the perpetrator conceals their existence, and neither customers nor merchants have direct contact with the perpetrator, making it impossible to generate disposal of the perpetrator. Therefore, the argument that replacing QR codes for property constitutes fraud lacks persuasiveness. In addition, customers scanning the wrong QR code to repay debts to merchants is not the direct act of theft by the perpetrator, and the perpetrator does not dominate customers. Thus, the view that the perpetrator is an indirect principal of theft cannot be established. However, it is precisely the perpetrator’s act of replacing the merchant’s QR code that replaces the merchant’s identity as a creditor, secretly intercepts the creditor’s rights and interests transferred by customers to the merchant, violates the wishes of both customers and merchants, and meets the constitutive requirements of theft. Therefore, it is more appropriate to characterize the act of replacing QR codes as theft.