Network MLM confuses the hot spot
□ Our reporter Zhou Xiaopeng
To grow medical marijuana overseas, you can obtain high profits by online remittance transactions. Relying on such tactics, an MLM group has made more than 33.47 million yuan in profits from MLM activities. At the time of the case, this MLM group had developed more than 50,000 people offline through the online platform, and the staff involved Hunan, Hubei, Beijing, Tianjin and other places.
Recently, the Public Security Bureau of Yongqing County, Langfang City, Hebei Province successfully detected an extremely large network MLM case. The police sorted out the hierarchical structure, division of labor, personnel distribution, and profitability of the network MLM organization from hundreds of thousands of messages from more than 1,000 accounts. According to the circumstances, 7 criminal suspects were arrested and the amount involved reached 1.2 billion yuan.
A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" learned from the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department that illegal network MLM activities involve a wide area, a large number of participants, and a large amount of money involved. They are intertwined with direct selling, cross-border MLM, illegal fundraising and other issues, relying on the concept of fraudulent use of hot spots. Constantly changing criminal methods are more deceptive, concealed and seductive than previous MLM methods, and the harm is more serious.
MLM activities are becoming more seductive and hidden
Hearing the job introduced by a school girl, "I can take care of my food, I can be a boss by spending 2900 yuan on a set of cosmetics, and I can earn a semester of living expenses during a holiday." Zhang, who wants to work to earn money and reduce the burden on his family, will gladly go As a result, it fell into the "Water Linglong" MLM organization unable to extricate itself.
At this time, Zhang will attend a university in Xi’an with the first place in the college entrance examination in a county in Guizhou Province. She has outstanding results and worked hard and brainwashed through the MLM organization. She believes in the so-called "how to make money". He started calling his family to ask for money and recruited relatives and classmates to join the group. He successively invested more than 100,000 yuan. In June 2015, Zhang will be "promoted" to "manager" and become a backbone of the MLM organization. He will return to Guizhou to collect entry fees for downline personnel to make a profit.
In June this year, in the process of the police in Cangzhou, Hebei, destroying the "Shui Linglong" pyramid scheme, 23 suspects including Zhang Mouhui were arrested. The case involved more than 15 million yuan. It is understood that this is a case of MLM under the pretext of selling cosmetics, and collecting entry fees based on the number of development personnel, without any product sales.
The reporter learned from the Cangzhou City Public Security Bureau that in this case, the organization members have a strong sense of anti-investigation. Each member holds multiple mobile phone numbers and changes dormitory locations from time to time. The dormitory personnel are disturbed from time to time; the internal system of the organization is strict and the upper level The manager forbids the personnel of various lines to communicate with each other, and the bottom personnel of the organization are highly mobile; the bottom of the organization is entrenched in Cangzhou, and the top management is remotely commanded in the field for a long time, which makes it difficult for the police to handle the case.
Police investigations found that most of the participants in the "Shui Linglong" MLM organization were under 30 years old and had a low level of education. They recruited fellow villagers and classmates to come to Cangzhou for development and brainwashing in the name of introducing jobs and making friends. In recent years, due to increased efforts to combat MLM, the organization's MLM activities have become more concealed. Key personnel above the managerial level are remotely commanding agents in Cangzhou to conduct daily operations in Guizhou and other places, and come to Cangzhou from time to time to guide the work of MLM personnel.
Since July this year, the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department, together with the Provincial Office of the Leading Group for Combating MLM Work, and the Provincial Market Supervision Administration have jointly launched the 2020 "Maintain Stability and Happiness" Special Campaign to combat MLM, and investigated and dealt with a number of people involved in large amounts of money. Numerous cases of illegal pyramid schemes.
The relevant person in charge of the Economic Crime Investigation Corps of the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department stated that the Hebei public security organs will always maintain a high-pressure situation of severely cracking down on illegal and criminal activities of pyramid schemes, and continue to carry out source control and comprehensive management in conjunction with relevant departments such as market supervision.
Three manifestations of network MLM crime
"With the continuous increase in the crackdown on concentrated MLMs and the comprehensive inspection of MLM dens and MLM personnel during the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, illegal and criminal activities of online MLM are on the rise." The Economic Crime Investigation Team of the Hebei Provincial Public Security Bureau According to the person in charge, at present, network MLM illegal crimes are mainly manifested in three types: traditional, pure network operation, and online and offline simultaneous operation.
According to the relevant person in charge, MLM organizations such as "China Chamber of Commerce", "Chinese Dream", and "China Green", which have long been entrenched in the junction area of the four provinces (cities) of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Liaoning, belong to traditional network MLM, using the Internet as a platform. Use the Internet to promote props and goods or attract people to develop offline profits. Related MLM organizations generally publish recruitment information on websites such as "BOSS Direct Employment" and "58.com", or use QQ and WeChat groups to trick participants into participating in MLM in the name of making friends and introducing jobs. This method belongs to the lower-level network MLM, strictly speaking, it still belongs to the traditional aggregation MLM.
The membership, development offline, information transmission, consumption rebates, etc. of the purely networked network operation of the network MLM are all carried out online, mostly under the guise of virtual goods such as "virtual currency" and "Internet finance" or pure concept operations, and members go online and offline They often don’t know each other, such as the “Shenxinhui” and “Yunlianhui” network pyramid schemes that the Ministry of Public Security deployed and detected.
Online and offline online MLMs usually have physical products. Organizers connect online platforms or e-commerce websites with offline physical stores by bundling online and offline, using new network diffusion and traditional Promotion and publicity in the form of landing, both online and offline.
In the special action against pyramid schemes launched by the Hebei police this time, they focused their efforts on cracking down on illegal and criminal activities of online pyramid schemes, especially online pyramid schemes under the guise of "consumption rebates", "funding mutual assistance", "virtual currency", "investment and financial management", and "online games" Illegal and criminal activities are the focus of special operations.
MLM organizations form professional groups
It is understood that when companies resume work and production this year, and during the campus graduation season, some MLM organizations use high remuneration as bait, under the guise of corporate recruitment, job referrals, and business partnerships, to lure them through social relations such as relatives, friends, classmates, and comrades in arms. Others participate in illegal and criminal activities such as pyramid schemes.
It is worth noting that, in order to achieve the purpose of lure newcomers, confuse the audience, and evade attack, MLM organizers often weave “poverty alleviation projects”, “entrepreneurial innovations” and other legal coats. MLM organizations have become increasingly sophisticated, with tight organization, clear division of labor, and strict management. , MLM methods have also been passed on from word of mouth to "killing familiarity" and tending to be informatized and networked.
"The organization leaders of online pyramid schemes form professional criminal groups. MLM personnel use Internet platforms to pull heads. They often rely on social platforms such as Weibo, WeChat and QQ to lure unsuspecting people in the name of employment, dating, travel, etc. Deeply caught in it." said the person in charge of the Economic Crime Investigation Corps of the Hebei Provincial Public Security Bureau.
The police reminded that we must be wary of MLM organizations using virtual networks to "make money", "web games", "money games", "listed financing", "purchase original shares", "financial investment", "Internet shopping and e-commerce", and "free profits". Under the guise of free purchase of goods, “how much rebate for consumption”, “mutual investment”, “charity”, etc., pay entry fees through online banking, register members or agents online, develop offline, and engage in MLM.
In addition, we must be wary of MLM organizations that use government support and project investment in the name of "photovoltaic power generation project", "capital operation", "western development", "flood prevention and water storage project", "municipal construction", and "secret project supported by the state". Waiting for the banner, using high returns as bait, requesting subscription shares to obtain qualifications, and developing offline profit-making "pull head" MLM.
College graduates and young people who are looking for a job should pay special attention to the fact that participating in MLM activities will not only cause property losses, but may also be suspected of illegal crimes. Do not believe in high-yield, high-return "investment" traps. my country's criminal law and regulations on the prohibition of pyramid schemes all make clear provisions on the organization and planning of pyramid schemes, introduction and trickery to coerce others to participate in pyramid schemes, and provision of venues for pyramid schemes. If you are lured to another place by others, encounter "brainwashing" in class, restrict personal freedom, etc., or suspect that you are caught in a pyramid scheme on the Internet, you must report to the police in time.