Liars are more "patient", the amount of a single fraud is as high as 13.4 million
Old investors meet new scam
The stock market must be a place where "big fish eat small fish".
At least in the live broadcast room, the "star mentor" taught so.
In July, in a secret free stock class, "star mentors" called on "students" to buy virtual currency, raise funds to be "big dealers", and "cut leeks" together, "You have to keep up with the team, that's the last chance. It's gone!"
Every day, there are more than 200 "students" in this live broadcast room on time. Among these people are doctors, civil servants, teachers, and most of them are old investors.
Also watching the live broadcast were more than 20 police officers from the Yubei District Public Security Bureau of Chongqing City.
They go to class on time every day, staring at the screen, trying to find the flaws of this group of "star mentors" - this kind of wrestling has been going on for half a year.
In January of this year, the police of Chongqing Yubei Branch received a report that a boss of several companies was defrauded of 13.4 million yuan in this live broadcast room.
On the day of receiving the report, the Chongqing police quickly established a task force led by the Criminal Investigation Team of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau and jointly participated by the Municipal Public Security Bureau’s Cyber Security Team and the Yubei District Public Security Branch, named “1340 Case”.
1
The victim who was defrauded of 13.4 million yuan was named Liu Xu.
This "post-60s" boss with a doctoral degree "actively" found a liar.
In the second half of 2021, he saw an article on the Internet about the stock market. There was a string of QQ numbers at the end of the article. Those who are interested in learning stocks are welcome to join the study and take a stock class.
As long as QQ is added, the door of the "big club" is completely opened: you can take two hours of free live stock classes every day, and the teachers who start the class are famous "star mentors" in the industry, "who can search for names on the Internet" , the teacher will also recommend several stocks, so that students can increase their practical experience.
For Liu Xu, who is studious, this is an opportunity to learn more about stocks.
He has traded in stocks before, but he hasn't been in touch for a while.
He took notes while taking live classes, and also tried to operate in his stock account according to the content of his studies. The stocks recommended by the teacher generally made more money and lost less, which enhanced his sense of trust.
"If unprofessional content appeared, this live broadcast room would have been blocked long ago." Liu Xu said.
Later, the police investigation found that these "star mentors" were impostors who borrowed the names of professionals in the stock industry.
Among the liars, there are "good people" with good professional skills, and they can recommend reliable stocks to enhance the trust of "students".
Each "student" is also equipped with a contact person, who can answer questions for students anytime, anywhere, send learning materials, and strengthen the connection with "students".
The stock class lasted for 3 months, and the "teachers" never mentioned "money", and never even asked about the "students"'s personal information such as funds and occupations.
However, the "teacher" will often mention that "the stock market is where the big dealers reap the leeks and the big fish eat the small fish", implying that the students want to be the "big fish".
Many people pressed the like button for the wonderful speech of the "teacher". Later, the police investigation found out that it was a liar who used AI to act as a navy, and wrote false comments and likes.
But these operations did not make Liu Xu suspicious.
So far, his money is still in his own hands.
It only took three or four days for the money to actually get out of hand.
In January 2022, a "teacher" in the live broadcast room said that after a well-known domestic company was listed in the United States, it was suppressed by the United States and wanted to return to China to list, but there was a funding gap.
If the "students" in the live broadcast room can collect the funds together, after the company is successfully listed, the original shareholders can make eight times the profit.
He began to urge the students to buy virtual currency and fill the funding gap through currency speculation, "Quick decision, everyone is part of the country!"
Another teacher in the live broadcast room stood up and refuted, considering the interests of "students": virtual currency is not allowed, this investment method is too radical.
The "radicals" and the "conservatives" began to agree to a competition to see who could raise the funds to return to the country as soon as possible.
Liu Xu watched the game from the sidelines, promising to make profits after the listing, "This is to make money on the basis of patriotism."
In the end, of course, the "radicals" successfully raised funds and won an overwhelming victory.
The live broadcast room began to organize students to buy virtual currency in batches according to the specified time point.
Liu Xu initially spent 500,000 yuan to buy virtual currency to "test the water".
The source of the account provided by "Teacher" is a newly opened company, and he has not trusted enough.
He asked for a withdrawal to try to see if the money could get back into his account.
When 65,000 yuan of withdrawal funds appeared in his card, he completely believed it, and in the next three days, he invested 13.4 million yuan one after another.
He looked at the account, and the profit of virtual currency slowly rose to several hundred million. "This money is coming too fast, much faster than his engineering."
Later, he told the police that at that time he even began to consider retirement, and he would never have to fight again.
His contact person Xu Tian looked at the investment in the account, and instantly felt a little scared, "I didn't expect to be able to deceive so much."
She was a little panicked, and immediately threw away the cell phone that committed the crime and destroyed the evidence.
It was not until Xu Tian stopped replying to the message that Liu Xu vaguely understood that the virtual currency that was rising in the account was fake, and that the funds withdrawn were just a "sweetness" to attract him to increase investment.
2
When Liu Xu was crazy about the live broadcast room, Xu Tian was in a community in Wuhan, keeping in touch with hundreds of "students".
There are many tenants in this community, all of whom are young "office workers" who are similar in age to the suspects - which makes it more difficult for the police to investigate.
After successfully defrauding 13.4 million yuan, Xu Tian made a dividend, gave each relative and elder a big red envelope of 5,000 yuan, and generously invited good friends to travel to Jiangxi.
Making money this time made her feel "raised".
This post-90s girl used to be a pampered girl.
She has a younger brother, but her father is more partial to her, and even handed over the management of the factory to her.
Later, she was caught gambling and was kicked out of her father's factory.
Lin Qiang is the "little boss" of this gang.
Born in 1984, he is the only child in his family, a top student majoring in computer science in a "985" university, and has worked in two Fortune 500 companies.
After graduating, he married his junior sister in college and gave birth to a lovely daughter.
Many police officers use the word "cunning" when describing Lin Qiang.
Before and after entering this scam, he spent all day at the poker table, owed more than one million yuan in gambling debts, and several debts had already expired, but his poker friends and family members who lived with him did not know his true identity. Source of income, his wife doesn't even know what he owes.
He completely cut off life from deception.
In order to avoid the investigation of the police, this group of people will turn off their daily mobile phones when working.
After each successful scam, they smashed and discarded the perpetrator's mobile phone and computer, and immediately emptied all electronic evidence.
Even Lin Qiang's travels could not be found at all.
He sometimes parks in the community, sometimes outside the community, sometimes takes the bus, and sometimes rides a shared bicycle.
Criminal police officer Yi Pan is the investigator of the "1340 case".
He analyzed that in the past three years, domestic anti-fraud publicity and investigation have increased, and most fraud gangs have migrated overseas.
Most of the fraudsters who dare to commit crimes in China have strong anti-reconnaissance capabilities.
Later, the police learned that someone had spent 15,000 yuan to go abroad to learn "how to be a good liar", which included anti-reconnaissance tricks.
For example, they will use three months to attract victims, and then harvest them uniformly within three or four days, not leaving enough time for the police to investigate.
3
But in fact, in January this year, the police targeted this group of people.
Within a week after receiving Liu Xu's report, 25 victims across the country also reported to the police.
They are all students in the live broadcast room. After taking a free stock class for 3 months, they were defrauded in a few days.
Wang Liang, the person in charge of the "1340 Case", summarized the characteristics of the victims: over 50 years old, mainly male, urban intellectuals, mostly old investors, many of them were professors, teachers, and doctors.
There is a victim who has fallen into other investment and financial management scams and has strong vigilance against such scams.
But in the second month of the class, he changed his mind, "I think how can a liar cheat for so long, usually it's time to leave after cheating some money", so he invested more money than ever.
He remembered that the "teacher" said in class that in the past, he revolved around work and the stock market, without accompanying his wife, and was hated by his daughter.
After raising funds this time, and earning enough money, the "teacher" went to the United States to find her daughter and reunite with her family.
"I think this private matter has been said, how can it be fake?" the victim recalled.
They are facing a group of extremely patient liars who can spend 3 months slowly building up the victim's trust.
In the past cases of false investment and financial fraud, most of the scammers cast a wide net to chat, chatting for a week or half a month.
A policeman summed up the characteristics of this scam, "The fraud takes longer and the fraud amount is larger."
When Yi Pan rushed to the den in Wuhan, he saw in the community surveillance that Lin Qiang and Xu Tian went out with large and small bags after committing the crime.
He judged that the physical evidence in this case was in the package and had been destroyed by the suspect. If he was arrested immediately, there would be no physical evidence and only the suspect's confession, and it would be difficult to file a case.
He followed Lin Qiang's clues to investigate further, and found another fraud gang that used the same method to defraud.
Another fraud gang is more stringent in recruitment, requiring contacts to have at least a bachelor’s degree, understand the stock market and financial markets, and communicate with “students” in professional financial terms.
Wang Liang described the two fraud teams as two "construction teams" responsible for recruiting contacts in China and opening live broadcast rooms; their big boss is abroad and is responsible for providing fraud procedures and a complete set of live video courses. The "brain" of the scam takes the most share.
4
After locking the suspect and the den, the police investigation was interrupted for a time.
Until April, the group of liars reopened a new live broadcast room.
It's a battle of patience.
Most of the time, the shouting-style teaching was repeated in the live broadcast room, until one time, when the "teacher" was switching the PPT, a fraudulent website appeared on the screen, which was keenly recorded by the police who were watching the live broadcast.
"In that second, we saw the website," said police officer Song Hao, which greatly helped the follow-up detection.
The work of squatting and guarding the dens continued, and the police took turns to guard the community.
Until mid-July, the live broadcast room once again mentioned that large companies were suppressed after listing in the United States. I hope that when they return to China for listing, the police are ready and will start to close the network.
To this end, the police have been waiting for half a year.
There are more than 600 victims in this case, all over the country, and the amount involved in the case exceeds 100 million.
Chongqing sent 31 police officers to Wuhan, planning to arrest 17 suspects in 12 dens.
The closing time is set at 6:00 am on July 20, the second day after the live broadcast room called for the purchase of virtual currency.
On the day when the Internet was closed, all the police held a meeting until after one o'clock in the morning to sort the 12 dens. First, the dens that were being scammed were taken down, and then they went to find other suspects at home one by one.
They also sent warning messages to students who were in class at the time, reminding them not to transfer money.
It was a windless cloudy day, and the temperature in Wuhan rose to 37 degrees Celsius.
In addition to Song Hao and his colleagues, there were more than a dozen people from the Wuhan police in front of the den, which almost filled the corridor.
They choose not to knock on the door and break in, so that the crooks have no time to destroy the evidence.
They even sent two policemen downstairs to stare at the windows on the 19th floor to prevent the crooks from throwing down evidence such as mobile phones and USB flash drives.
With a bang, the door popped open.
Two of the suspects were lying on the back of the door, ready to see the situation outside the door from the cat's eye, but they were knocked down before they could run.
Finally, in this den, the police arrested 4 suspects and seized more than 30 mobile phones, 3 computers and several accounting books from the scene.
For telecommunications fraud cases, it is a rare and successful result to get both people and stolen goods.
After the main dens were all seized, the arrest of Lin Qiang also began.
At 7:15 a.m. on July 20, Lin Qiang walked out of the house alone.
He was wearing slippers and short-sleeved shorts, looking like he didn't wake up.
He was awakened by a phone call. The man on the other end accidentally scratched his car, and he had to go out to check.
Just when he looked down to check the scratch, the man behind him suddenly held him down.
"I'm here to ask for a debt." Lin Qiang explained to the police after the incident. At that time, he thought he was coming to collect gambling debts.
It was not until he saw the other party's documents that he suddenly understood the other party's identity.
The first sentence he uttered was, "You're wronged! You must have found the wrong person." During the interrogation, he told the police that he had never noticed that he was being targeted by the police, nor did he find any of the host police officers and him. I have had several face-to-face meetings, so I dared to complain.
And Xu Tian was arrested at home.
Yi Pan recalled that Xu Tian was sitting beside the bed and sighed deeply, "I know that such a day will come sooner or later." Her father called her and was willing to help her return the stolen money, and later came to Chongqing to visit her twice.
Sitting in the interrogation room, Lin Qiang said that the days he misses the most are during his university internship, when he and his wife went to eat hot pot of tens of yuan after get off work.
But after having a child, his financial burden increased, and his sense of happiness was much less. "A man's responsibility is to let his family live a good life." And his ideal good life is to have one or two houses, and Live with family.
Having said this, he sighed, "Actually, I achieved this goal many years ago." Greed ruined everything.
(Lin Qiang, Liu Xu and Xu Tian are pseudonyms in the text)
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Wei Xi Source: China Youth Daily