"Hit the list" for idols, be careful of pits
In a fraud case against minors, 11 victims were defrauded of nearly 25,<> yuan
At present, with the impetus of the "rice circle" economy, fundraising has become a boom to vote for celebrities, and many minors are addicted to it. Yang and Tang targeted the weaknesses of minors such as little social experience, poor awareness of prevention, and blind star chasing, and under the "guise of obtaining benefits such as opportunities to interact with celebrities", they lured minor victims into so-called helping celebrities "hit the list", and then committed fraud, defrauding a total of 11 juvenile victims of nearly 25,<> yuan.
In June this year, the Runzhou District Procuratorate in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province, prosecuted criminal suspects Yang and Tang on suspicion of fraud. Recently, after trial, the court sentenced defendant Yang to four years and three months in prison and defendant Tang to two years and ten months in prison for fraud, each with a fine.
1 cent "list" becomes 2,<> yuan "transfer"
12-year-old Lele (pseudonym) lives in Zhenjiang City and is a senior fan of a youth group. She usually likes to chase stars, and her family has bought a lot of idol pictorials and endorsement products. On the evening of October 2022, 10, Lele saw an account he followed in QQ space post a dynamic about a youth group, and was immediately attracted by the wonderful content, so he took the initiative to add the dynamic publisher nicknamed "Help" as a QQ friend. The other party said that he was the assistant of the youth group, specializing in "playing the list" (referring to improving the ranking and popularity of idols on a certain platform through voting, posting Weibo with topics, etc.), and said that as long as he scanned the QR code he sent and paid 29 cent, he could help "hit the list", and also had the opportunity to obtain autographed photos of idols and interact with idols.
"For 1 cent, you can help idols 'hit the list' and have the opportunity to interact with idols?" Lele felt that it was too worthwhile, so he couldn't wait to secretly take his father's mobile phone to scan the code and paid 1 cent. Soon, the "boost" pulled Lele into a small group. However, Lele, who is full of expectations, is not an intimate interaction with an idol, but a screenshot of the system. The other party said that because Lele was a minor to transfer money, their account and Lele's father's account were frozen, and she must cooperate with the unfreezing, otherwise not only the money in her father's mobile phone would be deducted, but the public security organs would also come to find her.
Worried that the idol's "listing" would be affected, and afraid that his parents would blame him if they knew it, Lele, who had no masters of the six gods, was threatened and lured by the other party step by step, and transferred a total of more than 15,2 yuan through Cloud QuickPay in three times in just <> minutes. After determining that Lele's mobile phone could no longer pay, "Assist" blacked Lele's QQ number. Lele, who knew that he had broken into a catastrophe, secretly put his father's mobile phone back in its original place, not daring to tell the truth about the matter. Early the next morning, Lele's father found the transfer record and immediately reported it.
3 people ganged up to scam
Where is the QQ number that originally posted the news? Where did the money that Lele was scammed go to? After investigation by the public security organs, the criminal suspect of defrauding Lele surfaced.
It turned out that the real identity of "Help" was 22-year-old Yang. In September 2022, Yang used the channel of his fellow villager Ma (to be dealt with in a separate case) to find someone to buy the so-called "star QQ number" on QQ, and most of the friends of these QQ numbers are elementary school students and junior high school students, and their common feature is that they like to chase stars.
Yang posted a false dynamic in QQ space in the name of nickname "Help", the content is that as long as he pays 1 cent to help "hit the list", he has the opportunity to obtain the benefits of intimate interaction with a youth group. Lele was lured into taking the bait by this fake dynamic released by Yang. After Lele scanned the code to pay 1 cent and repeatedly confirmed that she was a minor, Yang pulled her into a group of 2 people called "Help 5", and the other 4 QQ numbers in the group were actually Yang's. It was in this small group that Lele encountered the aforementioned coercion and temptation, scanned the collection code sent by Yang in panic and fear, and made a large transfer.
In order to evade the investigation of the public security organs, Yang also cooperated with a money laundering gang on the Internet, and the other party provided the collection code, and the stolen money was divided 50% each. In this way, Lele's money fell into the account of the money laundering gang, and the other party returned the money to Yang in two ways: virtual currency Tether and Alipay transfer. Every time he withdrew money, Yang would look for small merchants on the street who operated tobacco and alcohol or daily miscellaneous goods to help, and gave a 2% benefit fee.
At the end of November 2022, Tang learned of his friend Yang's "way to make money" and took the initiative to join and provide funds for the purchase of QQ numbers.
All 11 victims were minors
Because Yang had logged in to his real QQ account during the fraud process, the public security organ traced and judged the location of Yang by retrieving the login IP address information of the QQ number. In the end, Yang and Tang were arrested by the public security police when they committed fraud in a hotel in Suining County, Shaoyang City, Hunan Province.
Combined with the confessions of Yang and others and verified by the national anti-fraud big data platform, between September 2022 and February this year, Yang and others jointly committed 9 crimes in the above way, and the 2 victims were minors, with a total amount of nearly 11,11 yuan, of which the largest amount deceived was 25,5 yuan, and Yang and Ma actually received 3,5 yuan each. In addition, Tang participated in two fraud cases, involving a total of more than 3,4000 yuan, and actually received <>,<> yuan.
After the case was transferred to the Runzhou District Procuratorate in Zhenjiang City for review and prosecution, the procurator explained the law to Yang and others and urged them to return the proceeds of fraud and recover the victims' losses as much as possible. At present, nearly 25,<> yuan of fraudulent money recovered has been returned to the victims in this case.
While handling the case, the juvenile procuratorial team of the Runzhou District Procuratorate also took the initiative to contact the local education department, went to primary and secondary schools in the jurisdiction, and carried out legal publicity and education activities in conjunction with the case, educating students to rationally chase stars, consciously resist the influence of bad "rice circle" culture, and improve their awareness and ability to recognize and prevent deception online.
Edit notes
The trap on the road to chasing stars, how to help children break it
Zhang Zixuan
Minors made a list for "idou", but encountered "star-chasing scams". Combing through this case, it can be found that the criminal suspect took advantage of the minor's blind mentality of eager interaction with idols, lack of social experience and legal awareness, and laid a trap.
In the context of the whole chain of cracking down on telecom network fraud crimes, extending the hand of evil to minors cannot be tolerated! The reason why related fraud routines have been tried and tested is often related to irrational star chasing. This reminds parents and schools that they should work together to make up for the lesson of anti-fraud and anti-fraud for minors and make up for the shortcomings of anti-fraud and anti-fraud education. At the same time, parents and schools educate and guide children to establish a correct idol concept by giving them more high-quality companionship and attention, helping children understand and learn safe rules for using the Internet, so that they can remain calm and rational in online star chasing and avoid blind obedience. For fraud cases targeting minors, the judicial organs should take the initiative to strike out, severely punish them according to law, and completely cut off the "black hands" reaching out to children.
(Procuratorial Daily, Guan Ying, Li Jun, Weng Zhijuan)