ETYMOLOGY
This seemingly rebellious phrase encapsulates a decade of Chinese internet culture evolution. Its breakout moment came in 2010 when the World of Warcraft expansion『Cataclysm』was delayed in China due to regulatory approvals. Players flooded Baidu Tieba forums raging 『The9 (operator) is scamming dads!』 - marking its first viral spread.
The term gained new dimensions during 2012's smartphone boom. Rampant山寨(shānzhài, knockoff) apps draining mobile data sparked the Weibo hashtag #GotScammedAnyDadsToday#, hitting 2M discussions daily. This expanded its meaning from literal deception to general absurdity.
The semantic revolution happened in 2016. During a League of Legends stream on Douyu TV, a popular host exclaimed 『This game mechanic totally scams dads!』 after a questionable system判定(pàndìng, judgment). The弹幕(dànmù, live comments) went wild, boosting the term's usage by 470% that day. 『Scamming dads』had transitioned from specific accusation to emotional placeholder.
In 2021, when e-commerce platforms created overly complex Double 11 discount algorithms, the Zhihu post《Modern Dad-Scamming Encyclopedia》perfectly captured consumer frustration, even getting reposted by state media. Today it's fully grammaticalized - as verb (『Got dad-scammed by my ISP again』), adjective (『This dad-scamming design』), even interjection (『Scam dads! Forgot to save the file!』).
Typical usage:1. 『All duplicate items in this blind box? Pure dad-scamming!』2. 『Weather app said sunny but it's pouring - are they scamming dads?』3. (Reacting to absurd news) 『Daily dad-scamming tip unlocked』