The rice ring girl hurt by the rice ring
At the age of 17, Zhao Meng was tricked into approaching 200,000 yuan because of his star chasing.
She swallowed half a bottle of sleeping pills and tried to commit suicide.
Zhao Meng later saw the liar in a video. She was a friend she chased with stars—the "elder sister" who was 3 years older than her and met in the fan circle.
The man was wearing a floral padded jacket and sitting behind the iron fence of the detention center. When she mentioned Zhao Meng to the investigator, she described it as "very good to cheat."
"Fan" is a transliteration of the English "fan".
A Chinese diplomat explained to the foreign public this "currently popular word in China": "The rice circle refers to the circle of fans in the entertainment industry. Some celebrities use Internet platforms and commercial hype to mislead fans to chase celebrities in pursuit of traffic. Imitation has led to fans who have blurred their identities, and some of them have lost their wealth."
Fraud, suicide, seduce... This article is about four stories about "meal circle girls" learned by the reporter during an interview with the Shanghai People's Procuratorate.
In order to protect the privacy of minors, the identity information of the parties and the place of the incident have been obscured.
1
Zhao Meng is a typical girl in the rice circle. She has been chasing stars since she was a child and spends all his vacations on star chasing.
After her parents divorced, she lived with her mother.
In the eyes of her mother, Zhao Meng likes celebrities very much. "In order to see celebrities, I ran away from home twice as a child".
She used to fly from Shanghai to South Korea to watch the performance of the idol group BIGBANG, and then followed their flight from South Korea to Hong Kong.
In 2016, Zhao Meng knew for the first time that there was a music album called "Not Shipped Back".
This is a kind of "abnormal music album" that has been enthusiastic by domestic fans.
"It is indeed a physical music album, but the album is not shipped back to the country or shipped. Fans spend this money purely to sell the album for their idols." Zhao Meng said that this is not an unspoken rule. There is an option when buying an album. It is marked "not shipped back".
From March 2016 to September 2017, Zhao Meng spent more than 50,000 yuan in chasing stars.
She believes that this is "only considered the middle and lower level in the rice circle at the time."
On the “chain of contempt” in the fan circle, offline star-chasing groups often look down on online star-chasing groups; people who chase stars early tend to look down on those who have started chasing stars in recent years.
"Online is the keyboard man, do it at home. Offline is real money and silver investment." Zhao Meng explained, "Online fans are a little bit naive. There are more children, and they are easier to be manipulated."
Zhao Meng felt that the early rice circle environment was relatively "pure".
When she was 13 years old, she ran away from home to Nanjing to watch a concert-now she has forgotten whose performance it was.
She had only 100 yuan on her body at the time, and a sister she met in Fanquan gave her 200 yuan to buy tickets and took her to a hotel to share a room for accommodation.
The term "shared room" refers to the fact that when a girl with ordinary family conditions goes to a certain city to watch a show, or stays at an idol in a luxury hotel where a star stays, several people pay to share a room to save costs.
In 2017, at a luxury brand event attended by many artists, Zhao Meng met Wu Siyu.
Seeing Wu Siyu holding up a SLR camera to take pictures of stars, Zhao Meng initially thought she was "Sister Standing".
This is a professional group in the restaurant circle, making pictures, publishing pictures, selling pictures, and operating "stations."
"Zhanzi" refers to a public account or platform operated by a fan spontaneously targeting a celebrity or idol group on Weibo, forums, or websites.
Some student fans called them "Sister Zhan Dao". Once a new idol's picture is released, fans will often post messages of "Sister Zhan Da is so great" and "Da Da is good at shooting".
Zhao Meng was a little disappointed after adding Wu Siyu's WeChat.
Wu Siyu is not a "Sister Station". She rented her camera with a deposit of 30,000 yuan.
The stars they chased were also different. At that time, Zhao Meng chased artist Wang Junkai, and Wu Siyu chased artist Zhang Yishan.
"She chased all Zhang Yishan's activities. It seems that she is quite strong financially."
Wu Siyu also told Zhao Meng that she had been on a show that Zhang Yishan participated in, and Zhang Yishan had also greeted her.
These star-chasing experiences have increased Zhao Meng's trust in Wu Siyu.
They used to share a room in the hotel where the star stayed, and squeezed into the scalper's car to "follow the car" together.
"Following the car" is one of the forms of star chasing.
Wu Siyu was the first to take photos and shout with her idols at the airport with hordes of fans. When she saw the idol leave by car, "many fans got into a few vans at once."
The driver shouted to her, "You can't get in the car", Wu Siyu got on the car somehow.
The van follows the star vehicle all the way to the next event site or residence. The fare per person is sometimes 100 yuan, sometimes 200 yuan.
Wu Siyu found that he could introduce fans to follow the car to make extra money.
After each group and car, the driver will give her a red envelope of 80 to 100 yuan.
In this way, she, who is struggling with money, can raise her "meal" with "meal".
This is the other side of Wu Siyu that Zhao Meng didn't see at the time.
Wu Siyu’s hometown is in the countryside, and she dropped out of school to work in agriculture when she was in the second grade of junior high school, and went to Guangzhou to work at the age of 17.
She told the prosecutor handling the case that she "found some comfort and some sustenance" when chasing stars.
In 2016, Wu Siyu arrived in Shanghai, but didn't find a job or a place to live, so she found a corner of the mall to sleep at night.
She used to work in an express hotel, but she told Zhao Meng and other friends in the restaurant circle that she had stayed in that hotel for a long time.
"She usually earns the difference by reselling tickets for star meet-and-greets and media quotas." Zhao Meng said.
Wu Siyu met some people while chasing stars, and Zhao Meng also bought scalper tickets from her twice.
In August 2017, Wu Siyu saw Zhao Meng's request for Wang Junkai's Beijing birthday party in WeChat Moments, and said to Zhao Meng that "you can buy this place if you have media connections."
Star meet-and-greets are different from commercial concerts. Tickets are generally not sold to the outside world. People are organized to participate in fan lottery, event support or provided to endorsement brand owners, and media are invited to participate in the report. Fans or media people sometimes resell the places in their hands. .
"There is no price for the quota, it depends on the wishes of both parties." Zhao Meng explained.
When they learned that there were channels to buy admission quotas, some of Wang Junkai's fans also asked Zhao Meng for help.
As the birthday party approached, Wu Siyu’s prices continued to increase, ranging from 1,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
From August 23 to September 22, 2017, Zhao Meng made more than 30 transfers to Wu Siyu, with a total of nearly 200,000 yuan.
On the day Wang Junkai’s birthday party was held, these fans who bought admission through Wu Siyu were unable to enter.
"There is no proof or guarantee for this kind of quota, that is, the fan information is reported to Wu Siyu. She said that when she enters the venue, she can enter the venue after checking her identity information. Normally, this is the way to operate the quota." Zhao Meng said.
She couldn't reach Wu Siyu and called the police.
In November of this year, the police captured Wu Siyu who was chasing the stars at the Capital International Airport.
She almost spent nearly 200,000 yuan deceived, most of which was used for star chasing.
Wu Siyu said that in order to get closer to the idols, the celebrities take first-class airplanes and high-speed rail business seats, she also bought seats of this level; the celebrities live in five-star hotel suites, and she also lives in suites.
The money was also used to buy products endorsed and recommended by celebrities. She bought a piece of clothing worth 20,000 yuan in a store opened by a celebrity.
According to a friend of Wu Siyu's restaurant circle, they met when they were chasing stars in Shanghai in 2016. Wu Siyu claimed to be "Xue Zhiqian's assistant" at the time, and could find some information about the celebrity's itinerary.
"She said she is an orphan, and wherever the basic crew is, she is there." After Wu Siyu's accident, her father changed her mobile phone number, and the mobile phones of her mother and sister could no longer be connected.
And Zhao Meng and his mother borrowed money to advance the debt.
Knowing that the money defrauded by Wu Siyu could not be recovered, she committed suicide by taking more than 40 sleeping pills and was taken to the hospital for gastric lavage for rescue.
The cold catheter was inserted into the throat leading to the stomach, Zhao Meng felt that her soul was about to be taken away, and the nausea and pain brought her back to reality.
Zhao Meng is 22 years old and no longer chasing stars.
She was even thankful that she had given birth to a boy—no need to worry about her daughter in the future.
Most of the crazy fans she met were girls.
2
11-year-old Ma Zixuan is convinced that she added the QQ of artist Wang Yibo.
In 2020, when she posted videos on Douyin, she saw the number of "Wang Yibo" from a video introducing the star QQ number.
Ma Zixuan is an avid fan of Wang Yibo, as can be seen on her Douyin account-through algorithm mechanism, this short video platform often pushes short videos related to Wang Yibo to her.
After entering the seven-digit QQ number on her mobile QQ, she saw the nickname and profile picture of "UNIQ-Wang Yibo", exactly the same as Wang Yibo's verified Weibo account.
"UNIQ-Wang Yibo" posted a poster of artist Wang Yibo in the QQ space, making her believe that this person is her idol.
14-year-old Chen Yuyan jumped up excitedly when she saw "UNIQ-Wang Yibo" calling her "baby" in the QQ chat.
She sent a message again and asked: "Wait,'baby' is talking about me?" The other party said, "Yes, baby, you are so cute."
When the two chatted, the QQ system automatically generated "Wang Yibo won a new medal for "will chat more well", and the total number of messages sent with his friends reached more than 3666."
Chen Yuyan mistakenly thought that the system was "certifying" Wang Yibo.
Bu Yuanyuan, a 19-year-old college student, also found this QQ account, and she sent a long love letter to the other party.
Later, they were all cheated of money by "UNIQ-Wang Yibo".
This number is Li Xuan, a 19-year-old man from Henan.
In November 2019, Li Xuan purchased the "UNIQ-Wang Yibo" QQ account from a QQ group that sold accounts. The nickname and QQ space pictures were already "finished products", along with a TikTok video ad service.
Li Xuan told the investigators that the people who added him were mainly little girls who added QQ accounts through Douyin drainage.
"They all thought I was Wang Yibo himself, and they all said they liked me very much." Li Xuan recalled.
Li Xuan occasionally announces the "Giving Back to Fans Activity" in the QQ space: screenshots of the WeChat wallet to receive exclusive red envelopes.
The routine is extremely simple: if you transfer money to "UNIQ-Wang Yibo" to show your support, you will get double to ten times the reward.
In terms of specific operations, Li Xuan asked the girl to send him screenshots of the balance in the WeChat wallet and Alipay wallet, and then set the payment QR code according to the balance and send it back.
For example, if there is a balance of 300 yuan in the wallet, he will set the payment code to 288 yuan, cheating them that this is a "reward payment", and the girl will pay him the money after scanning the code.
After receiving the payment, Li Xuan asked them to delete the chat records and payment records.
Doubling the feedback is of course false.
Li Xuan explained, “Because they regard me as a star Wang Yibo, they will believe me and listen to me whatever I say on QQ.”
As a college student, Bu Yuanyuan raised doubts about transfers. She said to "UNIQ-Wang Yibo" in a chat: "Brother Yibo, you won't lie to me. I choose to trust you unconditionally. I don't want to be disappointed."
"Brother" deceived Ma Zixuan more than 7,000 yuan, Chen Yuyan nearly 30,000 yuan, and Bu Yuanyuan more than 5,000 yuan.
He felt that these fans were too good to cheat, but the speed of the money made him scared, and he hurriedly sold the QQ account.
3
The 17-year-old Jin Ning was summoned by the police for the first time from the countryside to Shanghai. From June 2018 to January 2019, Jin Ning defrauded 40 rice circle girls on Weibo.
She has expression difficulties, "was often bullied by classmates when she was in school", and dropped out of school in the sixth grade of elementary school.
Her parents were divorced, her father worked abroad for many years, and her mother raised a son and a daughter alone.
Later, her mother left her to take care of the elderly and went to work in the South by herself.
She became a left-behind child, accompanied by a mobile phone.
As a generation of "mobile Internet aborigines" after 00, Jin Ning quickly became familiar with the online world and learned to communicate with netizens in words.
According to Jin Ning, initially, she scammed money to help her friends pay off their online loans.
I saw someone on Weibo asking for concert tickets for singer Jay Chou. She replied that she could transfer the 2 tickets on hand at a price of 4,000 yuan. After adding WeChat, she asked the other party to transfer a 500 yuan deposit first, and waited for the tickets to be delivered the next day. Pay the balance, but she blacked the other party when she received the deposit.
For the first time, Jin Ning discovered that money came so easily-2 Weibo replies and less than 10 WeChat text messages.
After helping her friend to pay off the loan, she didn't intend to cheat anymore, but "has no money and a little vanity, and became greedy."
While searching for and responding to ticket purchase information on Weibo, Jin Ning collected announcements on star concerts and meet-and-greets on major performance websites, and posted ticket sales and transfer information on Weibo, waiting for the fish to get the bait.
Her decoys include: concert tickets for NINE PERCENT, concert tickets for variety show "Idol Trainee", TFboys concert tickets, Wang Yuan birthday party tickets, Yi Yang Qianxi birthday party tickets, Hunan Satellite TV New Year's Eve concert tickets, Tickets for "Weibo Night" etc.
Jin Ning kept posting netizen transfer and ticket information in WeChat Moments, as well as short videos of express delivery, creating a "real" and "tensed" atmosphere for fans.
Jin Ning said that she didn't expect so many people to buy tickets from her at first.
40 rice circle girls, aged between 15 and 30, the deceived amount ranges from 300 yuan to 7000 yuan, some are white-collar workers in the company, some are studying in college, some are studying in the United States... When Jinning’s WeChat account was reported After the freeze, she also successfully persuaded a cheated college student to help her collect and transfer money.
Many deceived people said that they easily believed Jinning because they were "eager to chase stars" and "eager to ask for votes."
It's not that no one has ever suspected Jinning. Someone posted the deceived information on Weibo after being deceived, but when the next victim found out, Jinning had already been hacked.
For the same person, Jinning only defrauded the deposit or part of the advance payment.
“Mutual exchanges generally do not exceed 5 round trips, and the money is transferred through WeChat or Alipay.” A Shanghai prosecutor who handled the case said that Jinning’s method of fraud was extremely simple, and her thinking was also very simple, “but she was deceived. Of people have simpler thinking when chasing stars."
Jinning cheated a total of 68,000 yuan.
After she was captured by the Shanghai police, her mother flew to Shanghai for the first time and spent a month of living expenses.
Someone advised the mother to pay more attention to the growth of her child.
She stretched out her hands in tears, and her fingers were soaked in the washing water all the year round, bent, cracked, and whitish, like "frozen chicken feet."
She said, "I want to work for them to eat and drink."
The mother also borrowed money to refund the money the child had scammed.
She called the victim to explain and seek forgiveness, in order to try to reduce the punishment for the child—almost every time she returned a sum, she received a letter of understanding.
4
Luo Xuan is 13 years old. She has a strong desire since she chased stars: I hope the artist Wang Yuan can fall in love with herself.
Luo Xuan told a good classmate that she wanted to learn to "make Gu", "I want to give Wang Yuan a Gu so that Wang Yuan can fall in love with herself."
She was very interested in this mysterious witchcraft in movies and novels.
However, in the eyes of parents and teachers, Luo Xuan, a middle school student with excellent grades, is a "top school" and has a temperament. After her parents divorced, she did not want to take the initiative to communicate with them. .
A classmate told Luo Xuan that she met Wu Xia, a college student who claimed to be "good at getting gu" in an anime QQ group.
Luo Xuan said that at that time, she often met friends through some QQ animation groups and online games, and there were not many true friends in life.
Wu Xia said that he can help Luo Xuan "plant a lover Gu". Once the "planting Gu" succeeds, "Wang Yuan will like you. The specific manifestation is that he can feel you when you are close to him."
After the two chatted for almost a month, Wu Xia took Luo Xuan to his home to plant Gu.
"The way to spread Gu is to'pop' between men and women." Luo Xuan said, "pop" refers to sex between men and women.
A psychologist found during psychological intervention with Luo Xuan and other students that although the school does not have a systematic sex education class, the girls have learned a lot about sex from mobile phones, the Internet and even pornographic cartoons.
"Wu Xia said that it usually costs 50,000 yuan to grow Gu, but you don't need money if you plant it." Luo Xuan remembered that Wu Xia took off her white dress with a bow and had sex with her.
Afterwards, Wu Xia told her that Gu had been planted, but she would need to feed Gu every month in the future, "Otherwise, if this Gu is hungry, it will bite the host back."
Luo Xuan said, "I lack knowledge in this area, and I don't know very much about Gus."
She didn't have the opportunity to get close to Wang Yuan at the scene. After returning home, she stared at Wang Yuan's concert video. She felt that when Wang Yuan in the video "looked" at her, her body reaction was different.
In the following three months, Luo Xuan was "fed" four times by Wu Xia.
She had great expectations for the effect of the seed Gu, and even started to worry, "What if Wang Yuan falls in love with me and can't extricate myself? What if I like other stars?"
When she talked to a senior sister about "Seed Gu", the senior sister told her that the seed Gu written in the novel is not like this, "He must be abnormal, please call the police."
"Come with me to the police station to report to the police, otherwise we will talk first, don't tell mother." Luo Xuan lives with her mother, but her mother is strict with her, she chose to ask her father for help before calling the police.
The next day, Luo Xuan's parents rushed to school and went to the police with the school teacher.
Wu Xia was arrested by the police on suspicion of rape and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
It was later discovered that Wu Xia was not a college student, but a 29-year-old elementary school teacher.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Geng Xueqing Source: China Youth Daily