A gang defrauded hundreds of millions of yuan by using virtual products to purchase "cut leeks"
News from this newspaper (reporter Zhang Qiang) Shandong Qingdao Intermediate People's Court recently released the telecommunications and network fraud crimes that the city has tried in the past three years.
One of the "virtual product subscription" fraud cases involved nearly 20 perpetrators, and the fraud amounted to more than 100 million yuan, which aroused widespread concern in the society.
At the end of 2017, in order to obtain illegal benefits, Shen Mou (fleeing) and the defendant Liu Moudong and others premeditated to determine the operation and profit model of the lottery network, and gathered Zheng Moubo and others to jointly implement the preparatory work.
From the end of 2017 to May 2018, Liu Moudong and others registered the "China Lottery Mall" website on the Internet, established an online trading platform for China Lottery, and released false information such as forged relevant government approvals.
In order to circumvent the domestic Internet registration and censorship system, Zheng Moubo and others registered the official website of "China Lucky Gold Mall" on an overseas Internet server and uploaded it to the Internet to conduct back-end transaction operations and forge the illusion of active platform transactions.
Qiu Moubin and others organized and trained dozens of "customer service managers", using Internet websites, WeChat, QQ and other network communication tools to spread false information about the platform's high returns and low risks, attracting customers to invest online.
In the middle of May 2018, the trading platform of CoinDesk launched the virtual product "Four Leaf Clover", and the purchase amount of the product reached more than 100 million yuan.
Around May 18, Shen and others planned to use 100% of the lottery and allotment of tickets to make the price of "Four Leaf Clover" products fall, concealing the fact that they had evaded the victim's subscription funds.
On May 21, according to the instructions of Shen and Qiu Moubin, Ma issued an announcement on the closing of the trading platform, and changed the winning rate from the original 0.86% to 100%. The purchase funds of other customers were allotted in full, so that the victims’ funds totaling more than 100 million yuan for purchasing the “Clover Clover” virtual product could not be recovered.
During the trial, the court held that Liu Moudong and others, for the purpose of illegal possession, defrauded or helped to defraud other people's property, the amount was particularly large, and their actions constituted the crime of fraud.
According to relevant laws and regulations, the principal criminal Liu Moudong was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property for the crime of fraud.
The remaining 17 defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 3 years to 10 years and fined.