The police in Chongqing and other places cracked an online fraud case of "weight loss and health care products", and over 80% of the victims were the elderly
Coordinate efforts to investigate problems, weave a dense protection net (build a higher level of safe China)
The police in Chongqing and other places busted a very large fraud gang. The gang seized the psychological needs of the elderly and other groups who want to lose weight easily. Starting from the promotion of a "diet and body fiber" product, it lured the elderly into a trap and prompted many elderly people to continue to lose weight. Invest large sums of money.
In order to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly, all localities and departments have coordinated efforts to strengthen publicity, education and crackdowns, standardize the management of online platforms, guide the elderly to purchase products from formal platforms, and improve their awareness and ability to prevent fraud.
--editor
799 yuan, 4,180 yuan, 45,000 yuan... For more than a month, Hu Ying (pseudonym), a 65-year-old man who lives in Fuling District, Chongqing, spent nearly 100,000 yuan on his weight loss plan without telling his family.
In the end, she couldn't bear the suffering, so she informed her family and went to the police station in the company of her family to call the police.
Even Hu Ying herself did not expect that her call to the police would actually lead the police to dig out a huge fraud gang.
On June 10 this year, the Fuling District Public Security Bureau, under the guidance of the higher-level public security organs, organized more than 300 police forces to go to Hunan and Hubei to carry out arrest work, and successfully destroyed a huge fraud that was specifically targeting the elderly and other groups to sell "weight loss health care products". The gang destroyed 5 dens involved in the case, arrested 339 criminal suspects, the amount involved in the case amounted to more than 290 million yuan, and the victims exceeded 10,000.
The police investigation found that among the tens of thousands of people who were deceived, the elderly accounted for more than 80%, but for more than a year, only one of the deceived people, Hu Ying, chose to call the police. Why?
Recently, the reporter conducted an in-depth investigation.
"No diet, no exercise, lose 3 pounds once a day", "senior nutritionist" formulates "packages" for the elderly
Hu Ying, who is 1.7 meters tall, maintains a weight of about 200 pounds all year round.
Walking becomes more and more difficult as the bone hyperplasia in both knees increases.
When Hu Ying heard that her husband and son wanted to buy her a cane, Hu Ying refused without saying a word.
But walking is difficult, and it is obviously unrealistic to rely on exercise to lose weight.
"Don't diet, don't exercise, lose 3 pounds once a day." One night in early April this year, Hu Ying, who was playing with her mobile phone, was attracted by an advertisement.
She then scanned the QR code on the advertisement and added a WeChat account named "Xiaolan, the official customer service of Ashan Body Fibre".
The next day, under Xiaolan's 5-hour patient recommendation, Hu Ying purchased a special dietary complex nutritious meal "Dietary Fiber" with a well-known brand name and a total value of 799 yuan.
"Don't take it by yourself after receiving the goods. I will recommend a consultant to teach you to ensure the curative effect." The "intimate" Xiaolan repeatedly urged.
Immediately, "consultant" Xiao Su added Hu Ying's WeChat.
"You can't eat the staple food, you can only eat some vegetables and fruits at most," Xiao Su said that this is to make the nutritious meal more effective.
But after Hu Ying ate the 10-day nutritious meal for only 1 day, Xiao Su expressed her difficulties: Ms. Hu has a special physique, and he is just a general "nutrition consultant", so I am afraid she is not competent, but he can recommend "advanced nutrition" Master" to take over.
Next, "senior nutritionists" Mr. Huang and Ms. Ran took turns to play.
They adopted psychological tactics and told Hu Ying that the fat in Hu Ying's body had been dissipated by telling "specific cases". If he did not continue to add new products to promote metabolism, the oil would return to various organs and joints of the body through blood vessels, and not only would he be unable to walk at that time. , may also be at risk of amputation.
Under the panic, Hu Ying stumbled and spent 4,180 yuan, 45,000 yuan, and 45,000 yuan to buy three "weight loss packages".
By the beginning of May, Hu Ying's weight was 13 kilograms lighter than a month ago, but at this time, she had not eaten the staple food for a month, and her physical condition was very bad. She expressed her doubts that she did not want to continue taking nutrition. meal.
As soon as Ms. Ran heard it, she asked Hu Ying to write a written statement, stating that she was responsible for any adverse consequences.
At this time, Hu Ying finally realized that he had been deceived.
"Let's not say whether the money can be chased or not. Just don't let more people be deceived." On May 14, accompanied by her son, she walked into the police station and called the police.
A fraud gang with corporate operations and a large number of people involved surfaced, and some victims were defrauded of more than 2 million yuan
After receiving the report, the Fuling police found through investigation that a company-operated fraud gang with a large number of people involved was behind the case.
Fuling police set up a special task force to investigate the case.
The task force found that there were more than 21,000 pieces of express information about the weight loss product sent to all parts of the country from the beginning of this year alone.
According to the clues obtained earlier, the police quickly found another Fuling victim, Zhang Dong (pseudonym).
Like Hu Ying, Zhang Dong was attracted by online weight loss advertisements and gradually fell into the trap.
Zhang Dong spent 990 yuan to buy 4 boxes of "dietary body fiber" special dietary complex nutrition meals.
After eating it for a few days, I found that it was really effective, so under the guidance of the "senior nutritionist", I bought it three times in succession, costing a total of more than 22,000 yuan.
On the fourth purchase, Zhang Dong also received a smart scale from the other party.
In accordance with the requirements of the "senior nutritionist", Zhang Dong took pictures of the measured data and passed it to the "assessment".
As a result, the "senior nutritionist" informed Zhang Dong that he had "three highs" and asked him to continue to buy a new package to "condition" his body.
Zhang Dong felt that he might be deceived, so he stopped taking nutritious meals.
Police investigations found that victims were defrauded ranging from a few thousand yuan to more than 2 million yuan.
From November 2021 to June this year, Li Xin (pseudonym) living in Tongzhou, Beijing has spent 510, 5,500, 96,000, 184,000, 170,000, 500,000, 700,000, 660,000 yuan, bought 8 weight loss packages, totaling 2,316,010 yuan.
"You never suspected that the other party was a liar?" the police handling the case asked.
Li Xin said: "They used various cases to prove that if you don't continue to take it, you will quickly rebound and become very fat, and you will also get heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. This scared me, so I had to continue to buy products. ."
More and more victims state the details of being deceived. After careful investigation by the police, all clues point to Hunan Shantixian E-Commerce Co., Ltd. and Hubei Shankangli Health Technology Co., Ltd., which were established successively.
One of these two companies is located in a high-end office building in a prosperous local area, and the other is located in a science and technology industrial park. The doors and windows are usually closed. The new employees recruited are relatives and friends of the old employees, and non-company personnel are never allowed to enter, which is very mysterious.
Fraud gangs brag about product efficacy, fictitious success stories, and induce customers to keep buying new high-priced products
After fully grasping the criminal facts, evidence and relevant circumstances of the case, on June 10, the task force mobilized more than 300 police officers, and with the support and cooperation of public security organs in many places, they carried out a simultaneous network collection operation and arrested Yi He and Gui in one fell swoop. The backbone and 339 members of the fraud gang headed by others seized more than 1,150 mobile phones and computers, as well as a large number of fraudulent "scripts".
After arriving at the case, He Mou, Gui Mou and other criminal suspects successively confessed the facts of the crime.
The fraud gang is mainly distributed in two dens in Wuhan and Ezhou, and the departments under each den have a clear division of labor and mutual cooperation.
"They attach great importance to advertising and marketing. Over the past year, they have invested tens of millions of yuan in advertising," said Zha Yu, deputy head of the Criminal Police Detachment of Fuling District Public Security Bureau. It followed up and promoted nutritious meals priced at a few hundred yuan.
In order to induce consumers, in this link, there is only one "dietary fiber" product printed with a well-known brand name, and the price is in the normal range.
Once the customer makes the first purchase, the "customer service" will lead them to the "nutrition consultant", "senior nutritionist" and "physique planner" in the name of "guided use".
They deceive customers by boasting about the peculiar effects of products, fictitious success stories, etc., and induce customers to continuously buy new high-priced products.
Often, before the last course of treatment is completed, the "senior nutritionist" will immediately recommend the next series of products in the name of private customization, and falsely claim that not taking the products as planned will cause physical damage and cause psychological panic among customers.
"According to statistics, the fraud gang has prepared hundreds of products." Cha Yu said that the "private customized" weight loss packages mailed to customers are all random combinations, and the products are all made of ordinary low-priced food, nutritional powder, and solid drinks. Combination, does not have weight loss effect.
After layers of packaging by scammers, these extremely low-cost ordinary foods and beverages have been touted as slimming products that can achieve miraculous curative effects, allowing the illegal profits of the scam gangs to reach 10 times or even 30 times the cost.
"For more than a year, only one person called the police, and most of the victims did not feel that they had been deceived until after the incident." Cha Yu introduced that the fraud gang has developed a strict "risk control system" and has a special public relations team. Victims are specifically classified to clarify which addresses and groups are prohibited from shipping, and avoid risks from the source.
In the process of fraud, if the victim wants to report to the police, they will usually take the initiative to refund the money, so as not to escalate the situation.
The step-by-step and extremely confusing routines make many elderly people unaware of being deceived from beginning to end.
Some elderly people realize that they have been cheated, but they are worried that their children will blame them, so they often do not choose to call the police.
All departments should work together to comprehensively manage and guide the elderly to choose formal platforms to purchase products
"It took more than 20 days from receiving the alarm to receiving the Internet, and the main suspects were arrested one after another, and the evidence chain was also complete." Xu Bin, deputy director of the Fuling District Public Security Bureau, believes that while increasing efforts to crack down on pension fraud, all sectors of society should Strengthen cooperation, strengthen prior prevention, and resolutely cut off the black hand reaching out to the "money bag" of the elderly.
Judging from this case, the fraudsters chose to use well-known brand products as disguise on the basis of casting a wide net.
Many victims come for brand fame, but fall into the trap step by step.
More than a hundred kinds of products used for fraud in the later period were mostly OEM production by small workshops.
Xu Bin said that relevant functional departments should strengthen supervision, regulate and rectify various products produced by OEM, so that fake brand names cannot become a tool for fraudsters.
At the same time, increase publicity, let the elderly group scientifically understand health food, and choose formal platforms to buy.
"From a practical point of view, elderly people living alone are more likely to encounter pension fraud." Deng Zhiyong, member of the Chongqing Municipal Political Consultative Conference and director of Chongqing Zhiyu Law Firm, believes that all sectors of society should increase their care and care for the elderly, especially the elderly living alone.
Under the circumstance that the elderly have limited ability to purchase legal services themselves, communities and elderly care institutions should try to introduce some public interest lawyer services, and strive to build a strong anti-fraud protection network for the elderly.
At the same time, all sectors of the society should strengthen the publicity of preventing fraud in the elderly, and widely publicize and popularize the knowledge of fraud prevention through WeChat groups, broadcasts, manuals, banners, etc., to further enhance the awareness of fraud prevention among middle-aged and elderly people.
Combined with frequent types of fraud and classic cases, targeted publicity to the masses, explaining the harm of fraud and prevention knowledge.
Mei Chuanqiang, Dean of the School of Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, believes that to prevent pension fraud, firstly, we must further strengthen legal publicity and education, and enhance the awareness and ability of the elderly to prevent fraud; The so-called health care products, old-age insurance, health care project investment and other false advertisements and telecommunication network fraud information for the elderly; the third is to further strengthen the crackdown to form a deterrent to criminals.
(Liu Zhengning participated in the writing)
Our reporter Cui Jia Chang Biluo