Chen Jie, a native of Chengdu, has been fighting against various illegal and criminal acts suspected of pension fraud for 6 years. From protecting his elderly parents at the beginning to helping more than 100 other families of victims in China, he felt helpless and hesitant, but never yielded.
In April this year, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the Central Internet Information Office, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and other ministries jointly launched a six-month special campaign to crack down on pension fraud For crimes, highlight the key points of combat, handle cases in strict accordance with the law, and make the recovery of stolen goods and damages the top priority of special operations to ensure effectiveness and prestige.
Chen Jie was very excited about the state's "severe crackdown" on pension fraud. He told reporters about his 6-year experience of "deadly fighting" pension fraud: "I hope every Chinese elderly person can have a 'protective umbrella' to prevent pension fraud. "Now that the state has taken action, it is a great boon for families like us who have suffered so much."
Text and photos/Wu Wei, an all-media reporter of Guangzhou Daily (except for signature)
The loving old couple is deeply caught in the "magic doctor" and "investment" scam
"Mother was cheated of most of her life savings"
In Chen Jie's eyes, his parents are a pair of elderly people who are extraordinarily loving.
His father was a soldier when he was young. After he was discharged from the army, he met and fell in love with his mother who taught in Chengdu. They have been married for more than 50 years and have been in love with each other. "Their relationship is really enviable, and they are holding each other's hands tightly when they sleep. They have been talking about their thoughts after retirement. I have to travel to many places, if it wasn't for my mother's cerebral infarction six years ago, if I hadn't encountered those pension scams later, our family would be very happy."
According to Chen Jie, in March 2016, his mother suddenly lost consciousness in both legs while eating at home, and was evacuated to the hospital to be diagnosed with a cerebral infarction, and has since suffered from hemiplegia.
His father tried everything he could to hope that his wife could get back to health, but because his father did not trust the doctors in regular hospitals, and some "magic doctors" in the rivers and lakes made slander, he asked Chen Jie's mother to take various health care products and even use "horn combs". Absurd methods such as "knocking" are used to treat cerebral infarction in the elderly.
In the following year, Chen Jie's mother's condition became more and more serious.
Chen Jie later found out that the health care products that his father bought and the so-called "magic doctor" he invited were introduced to him by members of a club he joined, "This club gave my father a great sense of belonging, and members usually dressed in uniform to go out. In this club, I listened to some 'old experts' talk about national affairs, and my father was also named by the club as the 'executive director of the board of directors of the XX Club'. Every time the club holds a meeting, all kinds of health care products are popular in the venue. ."
When Chen Jie found out that his father used the "horn comb percussion method" for his mother, he went to the club to make a big fuss, and even had a standoff with his father for a while. Although many facts were in front of him, his father seemed to be possessed at that time. In the same way, I do not want to believe my son's words no matter what.
What makes Chen Jie even more distressing is the experience of being deceived by his mother.
One time when I was taking care of my mother at home, my mother suddenly said to him, "I'll tell you something. I have invested in several projects since 2011. Now I'm sick and can't manage it anymore. You can see how much I can charge."
The mother pointed to her room and said that all the investment information was in it.
Chen Jie opened a box filled with contracts, materials and loan slips for various projects.
These data show that his mother invested in 6 projects and invested more than 800,000 yuan.
"Anyway, these will belong to your brothers from now on," said the mother.
Chen Jie was shocked when he looked at it. He immediately felt that his mother had been deceived. In order to find out how likely it was that the six projects invested by his mother could be recovered, Chen Jie began to understand these investment projects one by one. It made him sad: the first project company his mother invested in has long been investigated, and the person in charge of the company was arrested by the police in 2011 on suspicion of illegal fundraising; while for the other five projects, either the phone number has become empty, or the company has "people gone." Empty."
Later, Chen Jie learned that his mother was deceived by participating in a low-cost tour group organized by such a company. In a hotel in a certain place, the employees of this company said that the group fee was not enough, and they had to borrow money from the elderly, and then transfer the money. Replaced it with an apartment for the elderly, so that the elderly can receive rent every year, and they can still live in old age. His mother said: "I thought at the time that I have some money in my hand, and the bank interest rate is low, so I can invest in this and earn some money for my sons. ."
Since then, his mother has also been targeted by various "investment projects". The old man's awareness of prevention is very low. Every time he is attracted by the other party's words, he listens to their words when the project cannot be realized. That's it, Chen Jie's mother Most of his life savings were defrauded.
Father's gullible propaganda to stop drug without authorization risk death
Members of fraudulent companies often "makeovers" to evade supervision
After experiencing his parents being deceived one after another, Chen Jie came to a painful conclusion and felt that he spent too little time with his parents, making them "empty nesters" and thus becoming the main target of pension fraud.
Beginning in 2017, Chen Jie gave up his job, spent a lot of time with the two elders, recorded each company operator who harmed his parents, and studied the usual methods of such companies and their defense plans. Through its own WeChat group and official account, it has provided help to many families who have been illegally violated by pension fraud.
In the past 6 years, under Chen Jie's repeated and earnest talks, his mother has realized that she has been deceived, but Chen Jie's father has not changed much. Regarding his father who is "kind but has no ability to distinguish between good and evil", Chen Jie feels Debates and quarrels can't change the status quo, only symbolic submission to the father, but in fact he has been secretly protecting his father.
For example, during the epidemic prevention and control period, he posted a QR code on the door of his parents' house and repeatedly told his father that visitors must scan the code before entering the house, which is convenient for future tracing.
Chen Jie often checks whether the express packages received by his father have security risks, and often accompanies his father to participate in various exhibitions in the name of "big health", so as to avoid his father being deceived as much as possible.
"My father has already fallen into it, and he is also my research object. Even if I accompany him often, it is impossible to 'tether' to him all the time. I feel that he is still cheated once or twice a month on average." Chen Jie told reporters that after his understanding, most of the deceived elderly people have mild dementia, and when they were young, they basically did not encounter such highly inductive marketing methods, which also led to the elderly easily deceived.
In many cases, such elderly people are the main target of "pitting old companies".
Last year, Chen Jie's father took a fancy to a navel sticker produced by an unknown brand and claimed to be able to treat prostatitis through TV shopping. He paid a high price of more than 2,000 yuan to buy it and put it on the navel every day.
Chen Jie once asked his father if it was effective, and his father's answer was: It seems to be a little bit.
After inquiries, the reporter found that similar navel stickers were only sold for a few hundred yuan in some century-old medicinal material stores.
"Spending a little money" is a trivial matter.
In November last year, Chen Jie's father saw a company store selling hydrogen generators when he passed by an alley not far from his home.
The clerk sold him that "the hydrogen machine can treat cancer, glaucoma, high blood pressure, heart disease and other diseases".
His father didn't believe it at first, but the clerk invited his father to some hotels to attend conferences on many occasions. Various "professional experts" systematically promoted the functions of the so-called hydrogen generators at the conference, and gave Chen Jie's father two This thick book introduces the therapeutic functions of hydrogen in detail. At the end, the clerk told Chen Jie's father that after using the hydrogen machine for a period of time, he would no longer need to take antihypertensive drugs.
Later, Chen Jie's father spent nearly 7,000 yuan to buy a 3-piece set - a hydrogen generator, an eye mask and a water cup.
Chen Jie's father had high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. After using the hydrogen machine for "treatment" for a period of time, he stopped the drug without authorization.
In January of this year, after Chen Jie discovered his father's behavior, he repeatedly begged him to stop the machine and continue taking blood pressure drugs, but his father ignored it.
Until March of this year, his father suddenly blacked out and fainted at home. Fortunately, he was sent to the doctor in time.
"The doctor told us that the old man had this problem because he stopped the medication without authorization." Chen Jie said.
"It's really hard to let the old people who are trapped in pension fraud get lost. Almost all the companies they encounter are veterans." Chen Jie said that after 6 years of observation, he found that such companies specialize in trapping the elderly. Most of them will carefully design commercial traps, carry out false propaganda, and operate by experienced gang members with clear division of labor; in order to evade supervision, most of these companies' products or services are playing legal "edge balls", and these companies organize and operate The address and registered address of the company are usually inconsistent, and the place of operation is not fixed, so as to avoid consumer complaints or regulatory processing.
The main members of these companies are mostly between the ages of 30 and 45, and they have experience in one or more pension fraud companies. They often go to another when one fails. Most of them are "reciprocal offenders" who deceive the elderly.
These companies often prefer to use tours, conferences and other activities to preach in a way that completely separates the elderly from their families so that their carefully designed business traps can run smoothly.
"I have seen staff from such companies. I used to keep my father's phone number. When the previous company closed down, she immediately changed her face and sold products and services to my father on behalf of another company." Chen Jie told reporters that in practice In the process, it is very difficult to cut off the communication between the elderly and such people. If you just change the phone number for the elderly, these people will often visit the door and ask for help, so as to continue to set off.
Once successfully saved 160,000 yuan of losses for his parents
He experienced 'the longest week of his life'
In the past 6 years, Chen Jie has been trying to recover the losses for the pension fraud suffered by his parents.
But in his view, the parents suffered "systematic and organized commercial fraud".
On the one hand, it is difficult to obtain evidence. On the other hand, such companies have long thought of a way out to avoid risks.
For example, without invoicing, the legal person of the company is usually those "Zhang San Li Si" who have nothing to do with the company, etc. Therefore, the probability of Chen Jie's success in restoring the loss is very low.
Among the few successful cases of recovery, there is one thing that makes Chen Jie deeply remembered and fearful.
In 2019, his father was introduced by a "broker" and learned that a stem cell pharmaceutical company was cooperating with a famous tertiary hospital in another place to develop a stem cell injection. After the injection, the mother's cerebral infarction could be completely cured, allowing the elderly to stand again. stand up.
Chen Jie told reporters: "My father was very excited when he heard it and took the initiative to tell me about it. When I heard it, I was very suspicious. How could there be any panacea that can cure cerebral infarction? So I immediately contacted the tertiary hospital and asked the other party. Whether it has cooperated with XX Stem Cell Pharmaceutical Company. The hospital insisted that 'we did not cooperate with this company', I immediately reported this information to my father, but my father still firmly believed: 'You must be mistaken. The other party Let's just say this drug will make your mother stand up in 3 months'."
That weekend, when Chen Jie went to visit his parents again, he found that there was no one at home.
"No matter how I called, they didn't answer me. I felt that my father must have taken my mother to another place. I went to the police and checked the video files and the vehicle's trajectory in Chengdu with the police officer." Jie tried every means, but couldn't get in touch with his father.
Worrying about his parents, coupled with the feeling of helplessness he had always felt, he couldn't help crying.
It turned out that Chen Jie's father, who was 77 years old at the time, took his mother and the "broker", drove his own car, and drove all the way from Chengdu to other places. "When my father came back, he said to himself that his speed on the expressway was not as fast. When the speed is lower than 100km/h, my father has severe presbyopia and usually does not drive at night, but in order to save time, they hardly stopped along the way, and it took them 2 days and 1 night to arrive at the local area.”
Chen Jie said: "I later learned that my parents had paid 160,000 yuan for injections according to the account sent by the other party before going out. The staff also said that considering that my father is a veteran and my mother is a teacher, the original fee was 16.8 After the injection of the stem cell needle, the father drove the mother back home in a troubled way, and only stayed for one night on the way."
"This is probably the longest week I've ever had in my life, and I'm so worried and distressed why I haven't changed my dad's mind for so long. The only good thing is that my parents are back and I don't have any more. What to say, but I started to investigate this company." Chen Jie told reporters that after investigation, he found that this company had no relevant medical qualifications at all.
Afterwards, he strongly asked his father to find the company to issue an invoice. In the end, the company issued a medical consultation invoice of 60,000 yuan, but still 100,000 yuan was not invoiced.
After getting the invoice, Chen Jie went to the local health committee to complain about the company's false propaganda and illegal practice of medicine.
After several months of investigation, it was finally determined that the company practiced medicine illegally, and the other party finally refunded 160,000 yuan for the injection.
Of course, three months later, Chen Jie's mother's condition has not improved, let alone "stand up" as the company promised.
Chen Jie told reporters that several other successful cases of loss recovery were also successfully recovered under the promotion of the public security and the media, "It is very difficult for us to obtain evidence for pension fraud like this kind of medical care, so now the father once If I want to hold a 'symposium', I will follow along and record and record the whole process. From 2017 to the present, these videos and audios have filled my 5 mobile phones."
He helped more families defend against "silver-haired killers"
I hope every family can have an "umbrella"
In addition to defending the rights of his parents, in the past six years, Chen Jie has also contacted thousands of elderly people who have experienced pension fraud, and collected more than 10,000 related cases. Chen Jie said: "In recent years, many pension fraud cases have taken on new patterns. For example, in the past few years, I have received many pension scams in the name of epidemic prevention, such as an elderly family who was deceived by fake epidemic prevention personnel of more than 90,000 yuan."
Chen Jie summed up what many deceived old people have in common:
1. Traditional ideology; 2. Easy to trust others; 3. Kind-hearted; 4. Strong personality, less communication with family members; 5. Economic independence; 6. Living alone; 7. Relatively narrow sources of information.
He said that such elderly people are the most likely to become the target of "professional pit old companies", and they are also the most in need of family and community help.
Because once these elderly people are targeted, they will often encounter organized and premeditated business traps. Unscrupulous companies will design fraud schemes based on the elderly’s weaknesses and defraud the elderly’s property in the form of providing services or products; in addition, these companies often also For information exchange, if an old man is deceived by a certain company, another illegal company will also get the information of the old man, so that the old man is prone to fall into a "vicious circle" of repeated deception.
"The pension fraud is really a 'silver killer', which is very harmful to the family and society. I believe this is also the reason why the state has taken action to rectify the pension fraud." Chen Jie said.
Chen Jie also started from his own experience and taught these victims and their families the skills of collecting evidence: "Many friends will ask a question, how to collect evidence when they are violated? I will teach everyone to buy a mobile phone lanyard, Hang it around your neck. Once you enter the venue, you can turn on your mobile phone to record the video synchronously; the second is to show your identity, such as verbally introducing today's date, the identity of the other party, etc., and then simply and clearly ask some questions. The other party answers and records it; at the same time, the mobile phone should be turned on the airplane mode during the recording process, especially for important evidence collection, so as not to interrupt the recording and recording when a call comes in; at the same time, the phone memory should be cleared in advance to ensure that the phone has enough storage space ."
Chen Jie said that the current frauds for the elderly are mainly health care product fraud and medical fraud.
Health care product fraud gangs often use conferences, lectures, fake expert propaganda, free gifts, etc. to sell fake and shoddy health care products. Chen Jie's complaint suggestion is to find the local market supervision bureau and industry and commerce bureau; medical fraud is mainly fraudsters Fake cooperation with well-known hospitals, but carry out diagnosis and treatment activities without medical-related qualifications. Chen Jie suggested to complain to the local health and health commission, industry and commerce bureau or local police station.
"I hope that in the future, every family can have a 'protective umbrella'. If each family can have a trained family member who can timely and effectively record the elderly's pension fraud, the community and the family can share the protection information of the elderly, and take timely measures. Prevention and rescue measures will hopefully protect these kind-hearted elderly people. Next, I hope to cooperate with the community and hold training courses on the community and media platforms to teach the elderly and their children how to see through the scam of 'old people' and be the elderly 'Umbrella'."
In April of this year, many ministries and commissions officially "brightened their swords" to pension fraud, and gave Chen Jie, who has been confused in rights protection for 6 years, a "strengthening shot". He believes that under the attention of the state, he and others have been deeply affected by pension fraud. Families who are suffering must be able to overcome their hardships.
Chen Jie said that his next step is to standardize and professionalize the protection of the elderly, so as to deal with the chaos of pension fraud in the long term.