CCTV Beijing News on January 23 (Correspondent Han Xueying, Jingming Jiangsu Station reporter Suo Haoyang) According to the China Voice of China News "News" report, in our WeChat circle of friends, maybe you have also encountered I have seen the voting links for cute baby talent shows, children's art competitions and other voting links shared by friends, "Please help my baby vote" "Today is the last day, victory or defeat depends on this"... Behind the eager canvassing for votes by parents who love their children, not only There are various organizations that work hard to attract fans, and there may also be fraud gangs that work hard to make money.

　　Not long ago, the People's Procuratorate of Xiangshui County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province handled a fraud case specifically targeting parents of students in the name of paid voting. Tens of thousands of parents in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country fell into the scam.

Why did a child's dream become a "money grinding game"?

　　In May 2021, the person in charge of an art training institution in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province received an invitation to a competition. The other party claimed to be the organizing committee of the "Children's Art Star Competition" online competition.

Soon, the so-called official website posters, celebrity videos, etc. were all sent to the person in charge. What excited him the most was that the event organizing committee said that this was a national online charity competition without any fees.

(Central Broadcasting Network)

　　The person in charge of the art training institution said: "Our students only need to send a photo or a video of their usual performance to the organizing committee, and they can vote based on the video or photo. Parents do not need to do anything, nor do they need to spend any money. I wanted to give our students an opportunity to perform and at the same time increase the visibility of our institution.”

　　The "organizers" said that they will make the children's works into online links, and parents can send the links to WeChat Moments for relatives and friends to vote.

Many parents, with the mentality of striving for more awards for their children, highly recognized this way of participating. Since then, many training institutions in 25 provinces and cities across the country have accepted the invitation, and tens of thousands of students have participated in the competition.

　　In order to get her granddaughter selected, Ms. Li spared no effort to mobilize relatives and friends to vote for her child every day, but her child's ranking was constantly surpassed by latecomers.

It didn't take long for Ms. Li to discover that in addition to the daily voting limit of 800 votes set by the "organizer", the competition can also increase the number of votes by purchasing "gifts" through recharge.

　　Jiang Xue, a police officer from the Criminal Police Brigade of Xiangshui County Public Security Bureau, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, said that each person can only cast a maximum of three votes per day, plus three points.

Ms. Li found that a module called "Cheer for Him" ​​was suddenly added to the voting link. Clicking on this module can directly spend money to purchase virtual gifts to give the contestants extra points. Up to 500 points can be added at a time, and there is no cap.

　　The more you spend, the more votes you get.

Later, Ms. Li and her relatives and friends bought voting "gifts" respectively. Soon, her granddaughter's number of votes rose to the top, but not long after, her ranking fell behind again.

In just three days of fluctuations in rankings, Ms. Li's recharge amount reached thousands of yuan, but her child has never been able to make it into the top three.

Gradually, more and more parents, including training institutions, have discovered that this competition has changed.

　　Parents of participating students: Later, the first and second places competed with each other.

We could see at that time that the competition only lasted for three days. When he found out how many votes the first place had surpassed the second place, the second place started to vote harder again.

　　The person in charge of the art training institution: At the last critical moment, parents have this mentality. They start spending money to buy "gifts" for their children, and they have become irrational.

　　In order for their children to have a good ranking, parents spend money without hesitation.

In one of the games, parents spent as much as 130,000 yuan on "gifts."

In more than 8 months, the "organizer" has launched more than 2,500 competitions, generating more than 14 million yuan in revenue.

　　During the investigation and judgment, the police discovered that the fraud gang that made up the "3rd Children's Art Star Competition" online event and event organizing committee had forged event red-letter documents and falsely claimed to have joined hands with dozens of well-known media and well-known art training Institutional cooperation, etc., bragging about the popularity, value and influence of the competition, packaging the event into a national authoritative event, using the promise of high prizes and being selected into a fictitious "talent pool" as bait, and through background manipulation of data to induce the whole country to Many education and training institutions and students' parents participate in online voting activities set up by them and recharge "gifts" to achieve the purpose of illegal profits.

　　Jiang Xue introduced that the "contest organizer" claimed that this event was an authoritative national event jointly organized by the "China Art Talents Association" and other units together with dozens of well-known media.

These units are all "copycat" organizations that have not been registered with the civil affairs department. These news media do not have any form of cooperative relationship with this event. The so-called official "talent pool" is just a module on the company's registration website and does not have any practical effect.

　　Under the guise of free activities, taking advantage of parents' vanity, they actually make money illegally.

After investigation, the "organizer" was New Magotan Network Technology Co., Ltd. located in Lianyungang, Jiangsu.

After grasping relevant evidence and clues, in December 2021, Yancheng Xiangshui police destroyed the fraud gang headed by Xiang Xin, Yang and Mu Yu, and arrested 126 suspects.

In June 2022, the case was transferred to the Xiangshui County People's Procuratorate. The prosecutor reviewed the file five times and formed a 100,000-word review record and review report.

　　Xue Songyan, deputy director of the Second Prosecution Department of the Xiangshui County People's Procuratorate, believes that the money parents recharge for "gifts" and the "honors" received by parents and students are not of a consideration.

"First attract you to participate in the competition, and use the parents' comparison mentality. After the competition has gained a certain popularity, a 'gift channel' will be opened. At this time, the money will start to be collected. Pay through WeChat and vote with 'gifts', ranging from 5 yuan to 300 yuan." The price of waiting corresponds to scores ranging from 5 to 500 points. The more money you spend, the higher the score. Through review, we determined that there is no such competition in this case, and there is no qualification to hold a national competition. It is defrauded by something that is nothing. For parents to vote and recharge, it goes far beyond the scope of civil fraud and is suspected of criminal offenses."

　　On February 15 and July 13, 2023, the Xiangshui County People's Court held two sessions to hear this case.

Not long ago, the court finally made a verdict. The three principals were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from thirteen years and six months to ten years and six months for committing fraud, and were each fined; the remaining persons involved were also punished accordingly. .

　　The children’s talent voting scam is not clever, but why does it always work?

The police reminded that the key to the success of this type of scam is to take advantage of parents' desire to win glory for their children. Parents must remain rational and cautious about such activities, participate in competitions through formal channels, and treat their children's growth with a normal mind.

　　Jiang Xue, a police officer from the Criminal Police Brigade of the Public Security Bureau of Xiangshui County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, said: “First, we must verify the authenticity of the organizer and its relevance to this event; second, do not damage property due to greed for prizes. There is no free lunch in the world, and normal online voting activities generally do not set overly valuable awards and prizes; thirdly, if the voting link requires filling in personal identity information, home address, account information, etc., you must be extra vigilant and do not Easily leaked.”