Telecom fraud domestic "accomplices" become the police's key targets
On March 31, the Tongzhou police cracked down on a company that provided “promotion and drainage” services for overseas fraudsters and arrested 44 members, of whom 43 were detained under criminal law and one was released on bail pending trial.
Photo courtesy of this edition/Tongzhou Branch of Beijing Public Security Bureau
In order to find effective clues, Wang Binbin has to do a lot of data analysis and technical investigation work.
On March 31, the Tongzhou police cracked down on the scene of companies that provided "promotion and drainage" services to overseas fraudsters.
Through the method of "casting the net" to "promote traffic" for fraud groups, provide precise targets for fraud, and provide "account unblocking" services for account closures encountered during the fraud process. Some domestic organizations involved in the case have become overseas fraud gangs The "accomplices" of the two parties colluded with each other to form a chain of black interests in network telecommunications fraud.
Wang Binbin, deputy squadron leader of the Police Support Detachment of the Tongzhou Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, introduced that in recent years, with the country’s continuous crackdown on Internet telecommunications fraud, many scam groups that used to be entrenched in the country have turned to overseas, which has made the crackdown on arrests. The difficulty increases.
When the cyber police combed through the information provided by the informant, they discovered the existence of some domestic "accomplices."
Cracking down on "accomplices" can to a large extent effectively curb the occurrence of fraud and crimes, cut off the domestic chain, and keep the people's "money bags" at the source.
Promotion and drainage: let victims hook into foreign scammers
Beijing News: How did domestic organizations involved in the case help overseas fraud groups?
Wang Binbin: They mainly do two things: drainage promotion and unblocking accounts.
Promotion and drainage is to help fraudsters find precise targets for fraud.
For example, order fraud, "accomplices" gangs will collect a large number of personal job search information filled out by users on major platforms, fabricate words in a targeted manner, and then distribute them to this group of people on a large scale and accurately.
Perhaps sending 100 emails, two or three people believe that they will add a QQ number according to the email guidelines. Once added, it is the beginning of the "hooking".
Because this QQ account belongs to foreign scammers, these "accomplices" have given the scammers people who are very likely to be deceived.
To give another example, one of the most common scams-naked video chats, also rely on "accomplices" to attract traffic.
"Accomplices" refer to users who make friends by video chat as "color powder". They fabricate false identity information to be active in all kinds of dating software. Widespread the Internet to screen out the "color powder" in need, and then guide users to add it after the chat is almost done. The WeChat or QQ account of foreign scammers is also a process of "draining traffic."
Beijing News: Have you ever cracked down on such gangs?
Wang Binbin: In February of this year, the Tongzhou Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau received a report from the people in the jurisdiction that he had participated in a swipe order and was deceived by more than 9,000 yuan.
While sorting out the information involved in the case, we found an account that provided "promotion and drainage" services for overseas telecommunications fraud groups, and then uncovered a domestic organization involved in the case.
This is a company established in 2019. On the surface, it does traditional Chinese medicine tea physiotherapy and live broadcast delivery, but in fact, the person in charge of the company is doing the task of "promoting and draining traffic" for overseas fraud groups.
The company's middle-level managers led their team members to send emails to people who are looking for jobs in accordance with the "draining talk" provided by overseas scammers.
Scammers pay a commission at a price of 1,200 yuan per 10,000 emails.
On March 31, we raided this company and arrested 44 members, of whom 43 were detained under criminal law and 1 was released on bail pending trial.
Unblock the account: "pass the knife" to the fraudsters to help them complete the fraud
Beijing News: Why do scammers unblock the frozen QQ account?
Wang Binbin: If a criminal is complained while using QQ to commit fraud, the QQ account will be temporarily frozen and must be unblocked before it can be used. Domestic criminals will focus on this "business opportunity" and start the unblocking business. .
Generally speaking, if a scammer is anxious to unblock an account, it is very likely because there are very important scam targets in this account, and it is very likely that these deceived targets have been introduced into scams, and the scammer is about to succeed, otherwise it is impossible for him Take pains to unblock the account in a hurry.
According to the existing QQ account unblocking rules, account holders can unblock their accounts in four ways, including face recognition, mutual recognition of friends, and SMS authentication. There are many such QQ accounts in the hands of criminals in China. Mutual authentication solutions You can get one in a few minutes.
The Beijing News: How do these "accomplices" who unblock QQ accounts profit?
Wang Binbin: At the end of 2020, we destroyed a gang that illegally unblocked QQ accounts for profit and arrested 3 people.
According to investigations, more than 20,000 QQ accounts were illegally unblocked, which can be traced back to 872 cases from all over the country, including more than a dozen cases involving Beijing, with a value of more than 2 million.
In other words, there are more than 800 people who were defrauded by these 20,000 QQ accounts and called the police. This does not rule out the fact that some people did not report the case because the amount involved was small or for other reasons.
It is learned from the suspects that every time they successfully unblock a QQ account, they will charge a "service fee" ranging from 10 to 20 yuan.
These "accomplices" know what the other party is doing, but they pay more attention to the illegal interests in front of them, and do not consider how many people are ruined behind this behavior, so our crackdown work is very necessary.
Fighting "accomplices" can effectively curb the success of fraud
The Beijing News: How do you view the shift from directly fighting fraud gangs to fighting "accomplices"?
Wang Binbin: The previous crackdown on telecommunication fraud cases was mainly to combat criminal gangs. After 2016, these criminal gangs have gradually shifted from domestic to overseas, but our pace of combating fraud gangs has never stopped.
When combing through the information provided by the informant, we discovered the existence of these domestic "accomplices" in more detail.
Cracking down on "accomplices" can to a large extent effectively deter crooks from succeeding.
Telecommunications network fraud is too great in terms of the number of cases and the degree of harm. Cutting the domestic chain is actually to avoid the occurrence of cases and fundamentally protect the interests of the people from loss.
Beijing News: What is the biggest difficulty in this work?
Wang Binbin: Questions such as where the victim’s information was targeted by scammers, which account was used to contact overseas scammers, and which number was used to assist in unblocking the QQ fraud were all mysteries at the beginning.
Cyberspace is not like a real crime scene. There are no obvious traces. There are only a large amount of data of various types. We need to do a lot of data analysis and technical investigation.
The cyber police computer has at least two large monitors. Every day, we stare at a series of numbers, letters, and Chinese characters on the screen, all of which are account numbers and codes.
It is normal to have astringent and sore eyes. I often sit for two days in order to track a piece of data. I just leaned on the back of my chair, stretched my arms and turned around, stood up and pressed my legs. My mind would not be distracted, otherwise my thoughts would break easily.
There is no way, in order to solve the case, we have to struggle.
Beijing News: How to locate the suspect?
Wang Binbin: The victim is an important entry point for us, but most of the people who come to report can't tell how they are "spotted".
After we understand the incident, we will combine the existing experience and data to find out who is operating behind the scenes, find out the promoters and unblockers, and lock the suspects step by step.
Beijing News: What work needs to be done after the suspect is locked?
Wang Binbin: Same as the previous work, after the suspect is locked, the data information is still the "hill" we want to break.
We need to dig out the associations from the massive data and check them with the existing case.
After the evidence is fixed, the suspects will be defeated one by one to understand the division of labor, and finally complete the arrest.
Beijing News reporter Zhang Jingshu and intern Huang Qifeng