China News Service, Xiaogan, January 22 (Yu Wenhan, Yang Jianwu, Li Zongwu) Using hacking techniques to "hijack" phone recharge orders, "kidnapping" unknowing ordinary users become money laundering accomplices... Recently, the Public Security Bureau of Xiaogan City, Hubei Province cracked a new type of money laundering crime The method successfully eliminated a cross-border gambling and money laundering gang, arrested 17 criminal suspects, frozen more than 40 million yuan (RMB, the same below) involved in "black property" funds, and found that the amount involved exceeded 4 billion yuan.
In July 2020, when the Public Security Bureau of Xiaogan City investigated and dealt with a drug-related gang, it was discovered that the members of the gang used overseas chat tools to communicate, and 54 photos of the company’s business license were stored in their phones.
The police speculated that the gang was suspected of cross-border crimes.
The Public Security Bureau of Xiaogan City immediately set up a special work class to dig out a criminal industry chain mainly involving Liu XX and others, involving multiple criminal groups in Sichuan, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan and other places, which is designed for cross-border online gambling. Payment and settlement help.
Relevant criminal gangs “switched” the recharge of phone bills and gambling funds, thereby laundering gambling funds, protecting gambling funds from going to sea, and drawing high commissions from them to make huge profits.
The picture shows the criminal equipment seized by Xiaogan police.
Photo courtesy of Hubei Provincial Public Security Department
The special team organized two consecutive rounds of cross-provincial network collection operations, and successfully eliminated related criminal groups including recharge money laundering platforms, four-party payment agents, and money laundering intermediaries. At present, 17 suspects have been arrested.
According to the police handling the case, the criminal gang has complex levels, concealed methods, and clear division of labor. It includes a fourth-party payment platform responsible for receiving gambling orders, a phone recharge platform responsible for order matching, a receiving code platform responsible for collecting verification codes, and a special Technology company responsible for development and maintenance.
In addition, a large number of channel dealers, agents, card dealers and telephony dealers participated to provide services for all links of the crime chain.
In order to achieve the purpose of money laundering, the gang used hacking technology to "hijack" phone recharge orders in batches, making ordinary users unknowingly become money laundering accomplices and illegally profit from them.
It is reported that the gang's money laundering business mainly provides fund settlement for illegal and criminal activities such as gambling and pornography, and the accumulated money laundering turnover exceeds 4 billion yuan.
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