50 million pieces of citizen information were resold on the "dark web"
The amount involved is 150 million yuan; Yancheng police have concentrated on arresting 15 major criminal suspects
The police found posts reselling citizen information on the "dark web."
Some groups that resell citizen information use "fruit groups" or code words to disguise.
The police of the task force are discussing the case.
During this operation, 15 suspects were arrested by the police.
The information of the reselled citizens intercepted by the Yancheng police.
The personal information of Gu Hong (pseudonym) from Xiangshui, Jiangsu, "ran naked" on the Internet.
He did not expect that his name and contact information were packaged as "fresh first-hand data" and resold many times.
Even more unexpectedly, he has become a key target of telecommunications fraud and online lending gangs because he was remarked as "there is a need for funds."
Gu Hong is not the only victim.
At the beginning of this year, the police of the Internet Security Detachment of Yancheng Public Security intercepted a clue to reselling citizens' information on a "dark web" platform. After investigation, they arrested 15 criminal suspects who had been conducting information and data transactions online for a long time.
The suspect holds more than 50 million pieces of personal information, and the amount involved is 150 million yuan.
"This shows that there are at least 50 million people in the country whose names and phone numbers are in their hands." said the host policeman Ni Chen.
There are many types of these information data, which involve all kinds of citizen information such as name, ID number, contact information, home address, bank account and so on.
According to Li Jianjun, a policeman from the Second Brigade of the Internet Security Division of the Yancheng Public Security Bureau, this information is mostly used by downstream fraud gangs and routine loan groups for precision fraud or marketing, causing great social harm.
The frequent occurrence of cases caused by information leakage has become a "pain point" for the public.
On April 15th, at a press conference held by the Ministry of Public Security, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security Li Guozhong stated that he would fully promote the "Net Net" special operation to organize attacks on the "Internet Water Army", infringement of citizens' personal information, hacker attacks, etc. Highlight cyber crimes.
"Dark Web" Tracking
At the end of January this year, the police of the Yancheng Internet Security Detachment found a post on a "dark web" platform selling the personal information of Chinese citizens.
In the picture attached to the webpage, the information of Gu Hong, a resident of Xiangshui County, Yancheng City, was also included, and a string of text was noted: fresh first-hand data, there is a need for funds.
The poster is "SS52098".
The police checked the previous information of the poster and found that he was not the first offender.
Since last year, he has used this account to sell citizens’ personal information on the dark web many times, and the number is staggering.
However, the police only mastered this long string of user names. The speciality and concealment of the "dark web" made it difficult to find the true identity of the poster.
The police decided to start with Gu Hong, whose information was leaked.
Gu Hong never thought that his information would be publicly sold online as a commodity.
He told the police handling the case that he has often received some sales calls since 2015, and he can receive one or two calls or messages almost every week, involving sales offices, online examinations, insurance companies, bank credit cards, and children’s education. And many other institutions.
Most people who call him know his last name, and some can call out his full name directly.
"Some calls are scammers after I answer them, and some text messages make you click on the URL link, which is obviously a scam." Gu Hong said.
But when the information was leaked, he couldn't tell.
He remembered that he had seen an advertisement for credit card in Moments, and the staff who contacted the other party had reserved personal information such as his name, mobile phone number, and ID number; he had also left a phone number when he signed up for a training institution for his child.
At the same time, the police handling the case tracked the case day and night on the Internet.
According to Han Zhujin, an instructor of the Network Security Brigade of the Xiangshui County Public Security Bureau, the suspect has a particularly strong anti-investigation awareness and uses overseas communication tools to sell citizens' personal information. There are more than 30 people online and offline, and they do not know each other.
Through a series of methods such as network address tracking, the police gradually locked the true identity of "SS52098"-a young man named Wang Chao (a pseudonym).
At about 11 o'clock on January 30, 2021, Yancheng police captured Lieutenant General Wang Chao in a factory dormitory in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province.
Soon, two of his accomplices were also arrested at home.
The police found more than 90,000 pieces of personal identification information from Wang Chao's computer, including names and phone numbers, as well as ID numbers and delivery addresses.
"Online" and "Offline"
Wang Chao, 27, is a native of Gong'an County, Hubei Province.
Because he does not have a fixed income, he occasionally makes a turnover through "online loans".
According to his confession to the police, in September 2020, he accidentally joined a group that trades citizens’ personal identity information when searching for “online loan” information on the QQ platform.
Wang Chao still remembered that there were individuals who sold personally identifiable information in the group, and there were also those who wanted to buy information.
Wang Chao saw an advertisement in the group, which stated that as long as someone else's name and phone number were obtained, he could sell money.
After briefly understanding the process of reselling information in the group, Wang Chao tried to contact the seller who sold the citizenship information.
These sellers later became his "upline".
According to the "market price", the identity information with name and mobile phone number is generally 1.2 yuan to 1.5 yuan, and the pure mobile phone number without name only needs two or three cents. These personal information are called "materials" in the circle.
In the first attempt, Wang Chao bought some "materials" from a netizen named "Lin Tingfeng", and then set out to find buyers online.
He added several similar groups and took the initiative to indicate that he had personally identifiable information in the group. Someone in the group always asked him for a quote soon.
In accordance with the "rules", Wang Chao first sent dozens of data to buyers for "testing" in order to verify the authenticity of the data.
When buyers think it is available, they will buy it in hundreds of thousands.
Wang Chao made the difference from it.
A message with a name and a mobile phone number can make a difference of two or three cents, while a data of a pure phone number can only make 2 to 5 cents.
After receiving the money, Wang Chao sent the Excel file with personal information to the buyer via his mobile phone, completing the first business.
He said that although the profit is low, the amount of reselling is large.
Around November last year, Wang Chao brought his friends Along and A Song to join the group.
Along told the police that he had suspected that he could not make money, but Wang Chao said that he was much better than going to work.
Only two or three months later, Aaron received a "dividend" of 10,000 yuan from Wang Chao.
The three people have a clear division of labor.
When there are no customers, the three of them read the purchase information posted in the mobile phone group "take orders", or search the QQ group for groups with the keywords "loan" or "WD" (ie "net loan"), and add them to find Potential customers: After finding a customer, one person negotiates the price, the other collects the money, and then Wang Chao unified the delivery.
Transactions are usually transferred through Alipay or bank card. In order to avoid tracking, they also have a variety of more hidden chat and money collection software.
After getting more and more familiar with the process, Wang Chao also played some tricks.
He once pretended to buy data from his home, and in the name of testing, he first added some data to his database, and then blocked the other party.
On another occasion, someone wanted to buy the identity data of a person who had already applied for a loan on an online loan platform. They pretended to have it, and sent the numbers of three people and a few familiar friends to each other for testing.
After that, the other party paid 2500 yuan for 100 messages.
But after Wang Chao received the money, he immediately blocked the other party.
From September last year to January this year, Wang Chao made more than 100,000 yuan by selling his citizens' personal information. Excluding the cost of purchasing data, Wang Chao estimated that he made at least 80,000 yuan in profit.
Pricing by "materials"
In this industry chain of selling personal information, Wang Chao is only one link, he has online and offline.
According to Wang Chao's confession, the police found several of his online and offline names. So far, the black and gray industrial chain of illegal stealing, reselling, and infringing citizens' personal information with them as a link has gradually become clear.
At first, the name of the Shangjia network that Wang Chao cooperated with was "Lin Tingfeng". Wang Chao spent more than 40,000 yuan to buy more than 100,000 messages from "Lin Tingfeng".
Later, "Lin Tingfeng" stopped doing this, and disappeared from the Internet after pulling out Wang Chao's contact information.
Wang Chao said that he had also taken goods from two other sellers, but they only traded online, and Wang Chao only had their online name.
During this arrest, one of the sellers was arrested and the other was also locked by the police.
In addition, he has a lot of next homes.
Among these families, Zhang Cheng (pseudonym) did the most "professional".
33-year-old Jiangxi native Zhang Cheng once studied at a key university in Nanchang.
After graduation, he worked in several well-known companies.
In 2019, he registered a network technology company specializing in network promotion.
In June 2020, when he posted an online promotion advertisement in the WeChat group, a stranger took the initiative to add him to WeChat and asked him if he had any information about applying for an online lender.
At that time, Zhang Cheng didn't know that he could make money from this information, "I just promised to help him find it."
Zhang Cheng told the police that he had seen advertisements for the sale and purchase of personal information in the group that posted online promotions in the past.
He took the initiative to contact them, asked about the sales process, and joined the team of reselling information.
According to Zhang Cheng’s experience, citizens’ information is divided into three categories according to the time when it was stolen: “real-time data”, “overnight data” and “historical data”.
"Real-time data" refers to the latest first-hand data obtained, that is, personal information that has just been stolen. This kind of data is the best seller, so the price is the highest, usually reaching about one dollar.
But after a few more days, the "real-time feed" becomes the "overnight feed", which can only be sold for 5 cents to 0.15 yuan.
"Historical materials" have already been sold in the circle for a few times. The price is the cheapest. Generally, they are sold in packages and only cost 20 yuan for 10,000 pieces.
According to Zhang Cheng, these "materials" can be divided into "express materials", "student materials", "cosmetic materials", and "real estate materials" according to their different uses and sources, including names, phone numbers, addresses, schools, majors, etc. Information such as courier companies to facilitate targeted transactions.
He said that most people involved in reselling information know that citizen information is not allowed to be bought and sold, so they will use code words when posting messages in groups.
For example, the "fruit" and "materials" mentioned in the group refer to "citizen information", and "selling fruits" is looking for buyers.
Some of the groups called "Wholesale XX Fruits" or "Fresh First-hand Fruits" may have members involved in reselling information.
Unable to find the source
In addition to looking for Wang Chao to buy "materials", Zhang Cheng has nearly ten online.
Among these online, most people have other online.
Citizens’ personal information is being resold in their hands, but no one can tell the source of the leakage of this information.
Some personal information is leaked unintentionally.
"Usually registered software must be real-named. If this software has a loophole and someone uses technical means to steal information, it may cause information leakage." The sponsoring policeman Ni Chen said that there are some hackers who use technical means to "climb" from the software backend. "information.
But more information leakage is maliciously stolen.
Ni Chen said that they had just handled a case in early July. The suspect was working in a business hall. The elderly who often helped the elderly to do business used their mobile phones to operate. He secretly registered a certain software with the elderly's mobile phones to get a kickback.
The information of these elderly people will be extracted by the software side.
There is also some information from online lending platforms, which are called "Taizi" in the circle.
According to Zhang Cheng, one of his online information was extracted from "Taizi."
Zhang Cheng explained that to apply for an online loan, you must first register in the loan platform. Registration requires information such as your name, mobile phone number, ID number, and address.
There are channels on the online platform to extract this information from the backends of some lending platforms.
He confessed to the police that these information data usually mark the date and time of the user's registration on the online loan platform, and some have bank card information. If someone uses this information to commit telecommunications fraud, the probability of success is relatively high.
In addition to the "desk", Zhang Cheng also has the management staff of the order-swiping platform, who specializes in various online order-swiping services and is assigned to part-time staff to complete the order-swiping service.
"Swiping orders" means that online shop sellers pay for people to pretend to be customers to shop, so as to improve the ranking, sales and praise of the online shop to attract customers.
According to the person who read the order, the process of ordering the order is the same as the normal shopping process. Part-time employees need to register personal information such as name, mobile phone number, and address on the e-commerce platform.
He used the authority to sneak into the background to copy the information, and then according to the offline demand, the data was filtered, classified and sold.
This person was also arrested in the arrest of the police.
Victims in the "database"
As for why the offline buyers buy this personal information, the sellers of personal information never ask too much.
"Most of them are used to make calls or send messages, or to publish some advertising information such as sales and online loans." Wang Chao guessed.
His partner Aaron bluntly said that the people who bought their data were all engaged in telecom fraud.
"After they buy, they use it to call or send text messages to defraud money in the name of issuing loans online."
After the arrest, the police randomly selected more than one hundred phone numbers from the personal information reselled by one of the suspects and put them in the system for inquiries. Among them, more than ten people had reported to the public security organs because of telecommunications fraud.
These cases span from 2009 to 2020, and the means of fraud are also different.
The victims with less losses were defrauded of less than 3,000 yuan, and several others were defrauded of more than 10,000 yuan.
According to police system records, on August 16, 2009, 22-year-old Chongqing native Ms. Xu received a message stating that her bank card spent 9,800 yuan at Wal-Mart in Xiamen. If you have any questions, please contact customer service.
Ms. Xu did not spend the money, and immediately dialed the customer service phone for consultation.
The man who answered the phone told her that the money must be deducted from her card, or she could call the police and tell her a call to the police.
Ms. Xu called the police number provided by the other party, and a man claiming to be Officer Li told her that her identity information had been leaked, which made her bank account insecure. She asked her to go to the bank to take out all the money in the card and transfer it to China Construction Bank. Cary.
After Ms. Xu was done, Officer Li thoughtfully offered to help her upgrade the safety factor of her bank account, but first transfer the 34,000 yuan in the card to the designated account.
Ms. Xu made a transfer on the teller machine, and then failed to get through to Officer Li's phone.
Others fell into the trap of loans when they needed money urgently.
According to the police, in November 2018, Gao received a call from a customer service staff who claimed to be Rong360 Online Loan, and the other party said that he could help him with the loan.
After that, he used QQ to add a friend of the other party, followed the instructions of the other party, scanned the QR code to pay a 6,000 yuan deposit, and then the other party lost contact.
Pan and Gao in Xuancheng have similar experiences.
She also received a call from a salesperson who claimed to be an online loan company and downloaded the software. After that, the other party defrauded her of more than 23,000 yuan in six times on the grounds that the loan required a handling fee.
According to the records of the police system, the latest case occurred at 1 pm on August 9 last year. The victim Ms. Xu received a request from a stranger to add a friend on WeChat. The other party said that she could help her with the online loan, and then opened it again. Because the number of members was full, she asked her to deposit more than 3,500 yuan into three accounts designated by the other party in four times.
Later, Ms. Xu found out that she had been deceived and reported to the public security organ.
There are also people who misbelieve the winning information and are defrauded of money.
On the afternoon of December 28, 2011, the police in Xinpu District, Lianyungang City received a report. Someone received the winning information while surfing the Internet and remitted 2,800 yuan to the other party’s account according to the other party’s request. Later, they were found to have been defrauded.
In April of this year, after basically ascertaining the identity of the criminal gang that collects and resells citizens’ personal information, the Xiangshui police set up a number of arrest teams to concentrate on Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Henan and other provinces. Close the net.
15 suspects including Wang Chao and Zhang Cheng were arrested.
The police intercepted more than 50 million pieces of personal identification information of citizens, and the funds involved in the case amounted to more than 150 million yuan.
"This shows that there are at least 50 million people in the country whose names and phone numbers are in their hands." Ni Chen said, "If this information flows into the hands of telecommunications fraud gangs, someone may lose tens of thousands of yuan if it succeeds." There are a large number of people involved, and the Yancheng police have concentrated on arresting 15 major criminal suspects.
The People's Procuratorate of Xiangshui County has prosecuted the suspects involved in the case, and the related cases are still under investigation.
A10-A11 edition writing/Beijing News reporter Wang Chongpengcheng
Picture A10-A11/Picture courtesy of Yancheng Police