Zhongxin Wanghai, March 3 (Reporter Li Shuzheng) Aiming at the hobbies that the elderly like to collect, disguise handicrafts and imitation products as "literary play calligraphy and painting" to sell to the elderly, and then pretend to be buyers and other identities to fabricate repurchase needs, so that the elderly mistakenly believe that there is huge room for appreciation and continue to buy.
Shanghai police held a press conference on the 23rd, disclosing a recently cracked case that specifically tricked collectors into investing in the purchase of counterfeit "literary and playful calligraphy and painting" collections, and arrested 12 criminal suspects, involving more than 1000 million yuan (RMB, the same below).
Shanghai police cracked a case that specifically tricked collectors into investing in counterfeit "Wen Play Calligraphy and Painting" collections. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau
According to Zhuang Liqiang, a police officer in the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau's Spokesperson's Office, in recent years, Shanghai police have successively destroyed 26 such fraud gangs.
Mr. Huang, a 74-year-old resident of Minhang District, Shanghai, loves collecting. In February this year, Mr. Huang's family discovered that he had spent 2,49 yuan on a large number of "collectibles" in the past two years, but the sales he had been in contact with suddenly disappeared, so they reported the case to the Minhang police in Shanghai.
The police investigation found that in October 2021, Mr. Huang received a call from "Xiaocao", a financial consultant claiming to be a collectible company, saying that Mr. Huang had paid attention to the promotional video of the company's collection and left his contact information, so he called to recommend some "literary and calligraphy and painting" investment collections, and promised that all collections were from famous masters, all had professional institution appraisal certificates, and the company had long-term cooperation with professional auction platforms, and the more investment, the more income.
Mr. Huang used 199 yuan to buy some "entry-level" collections, and soon a staff member claiming to be a collection association or an auction platform contacted him to buy them. However, the amount acquired by the other party was much larger than Mr. Huang's collection. In order to earn the difference, Mr. Huang kept increasing the number and variety of items in his collection without concealing his family. However, there was no repurchase business for two years, until "Xiaocao" disappeared.
The picture shows the so-called "Royal Treasure Nine Dragon Jade Seal". Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau
According to Mr. Wong's recollection, whenever a buyback transaction was about to be concluded, buyers would always ask for an increase in the number and type of buybacks, and his collection was forced to increase day by day. The police judged that the company's so-called mature buyback channel did not exist, and there may be fraud traps hidden behind the transaction.
The Minhang police took the funds involved as the starting point and quickly locked up the suspected fraud of Zhuding Culture Media Co., Ltd., and the head of the company and the main suspect of the fraud gang, Zhao, surfaced. Zhao's company rented office space in a park in Suzhou, attracted customers in the form of the Internet, telephone, etc., and used words such as "from the hands of famous masters", "the more you invest, the more you will return", "the repurchase channel is mature, and the appreciation space is huge", etc., to fabricate the investment value and appreciation space of the so-called collection, and trick customers into buying.
In this case, Shanghai police arrested 12 criminal suspects. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau
On March 3 this year, the Minhang police, with the assistance of the local police, concentrated on collecting the net, arrested 2 criminal suspects such as Zhao, Wen and Qi, and seized more than 12 so-called collections such as calligraphy and paintings, jade, and coins, all of which were identified as copies, prints or replicas, and had no collectible value. For example, one side of the "Royal Treasure Nine Dragons Jade Seal" is a forgery, and a gold silk painted print "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is a copy, and the cost price ranges from 100 to 200 yuan.
According to the police, this fraud gang has a clear division of labor, the administration department is responsible for recruiting employees, the monitoring department is responsible for registering purchase needs, the logistics department is responsible for sending and delivering the sold collections, and the sales department with the most personnel is divided and cooperates, playing different identities to continue to contact collectors. For "first-time billing users", a set of packages worth 199 yuan including commemorative stamps, chicken cylinder cups, and serial banknotes are generally promoted, and after success, they will use the words to continue to promote higher-priced "two-open" and "three-open" products with the assistance of other salespeople in different capacities such as buyers.
The police said that the suspect's so-called collection was identified as copying, printing or reproduction, and had no collection value. Photo by Li Shuzheng
According to the police, the fraud carried out by criminal gangs is roughly divided into four steps:
The first step is to strengthen the relationship. After adding customers to WeChat, the so-called "financial advisors" will deceive their trust through continuous communication, and then falsely promote the value of the collection to trick customers into buying.
The second step is to make up the return. The suspect's fiction can help customers contact other buyers or auction the collection through the trading platform for profit, so as to increase the customer's desire to buy. In fact, the company did not work with other collectibles trading platforms at all, and the so-called auction site photos were all made by retouching software.
Step 3: Role play. The gang arranged personnel to pretend to be the staff of local collection associations, auction companies, painters' studios, trading platforms, etc., to actively contact customers with false buyer identities, fictitious "buyback" needs, and promote them to purchase collections, that is, shirk or lose contact for various reasons, resulting in the failure of "repurchase".
Step 4: Deep fiction. When the customer doubts the authenticity and value of the collection, the criminal suspect contacts the upstream supplier to find the "master" and shoot the relevant authorized video, indicating that the painting is made by himself and can be purchased and collected with confidence. In fact, the so-called "master" was also packaged by the suspect.
At present, 10 criminal suspects, including Zhao Moumou, Wen Moumou, and Qi Moumou, have been criminally detained by the Minhang police on suspicion of fraud, and the other 2 criminal suspects have been released on bail pending trial in accordance with the law, and the case is being further investigated. (End)