The number of indictees increased from 137 to 13,<>

Beware of the criminal trap of helping to avoid becoming an accomplice to the fraud

□ Dong Fanchao, reporter of this newspaper

In June 2021, Peng Moumou, who worked in Changsha, Hunan Province, secretly rejoiced that he had more money with 6 yuan "remuneration". He would not have thought that this unearned gain hid a price that he could not bear.

It turned out that Peng Moumou found a way from his colleague Zhang Moumou to "get money quickly" - as long as he sold his bank card, he could make money. "At first I didn't agree, it felt like scams or money laundering in the news." Peng is not confused. But after a few days of hesitation, seeing that his loan was overdue, he still agreed.

In the end, Peng was sentenced to 1000 months in prison, suspended for one year and two months, and fined <>,<> yuan for the crime of helping information network criminal activities (hereinafter referred to as the crime of aiding trust).

It is not uncommon to encounter something similar to Peng. This year's Supreme People's Procuratorate's work report pointed out that in the past five years, the number of people prosecuted for crimes such as illegal trading of telephone and bank cards, providing technical support, and helping with withdrawals and transfers has increased from 5 in 2018 to 137,2022 in 13.

In particular, since the "card breaking" operation in October 2020, the number of cases prosecuted by the procuratorate for suspected gangster crimes has increased rapidly, and it has now become the third largest crime prosecuted among various criminal offenses (the first two are dangerous driving and theft).

The form of crime is chained and technological

Simple operation, use the telephone line to connect the device; The salary is good, the salary is 600 yuan per day... In the face of the temptation of "high salary", the young guys Shi Moumou, Yuan Moumou, and Yang Moumou made a "heart-warming choice", but they did not know that they were on the road of no return.

At the end of February this year, Shi Moumou and three others found a "high-paying job" when they were looking for a part-time job on the Internet. The other party said that he only needed to stay in a hotel everywhere and run and install a "device" to get paid 2 yuan a day. Seeing that the pay was good and the work content was "simple", the three immediately took over this "good job".

Subsequently, Shi Moumou and the other three people opened rooms in many hotels in various districts and counties of Dazhou City, Sichuan Province in accordance with the instructions of the "boss", and installed and debugged the "equipment". However, not long after, the thunderous blow of the public security organs shattered their dream of unearned gain, and the three were captured in one fell swoop, and 7 VOIP devices were confiscated together.

According to the police handling the case, fraudsters far away abroad made remote dialing, and after the VOIP device was converted, the caller ID on the victim's mobile phone was the domestic fixed-line number, which greatly reduced the victim's awareness of prevention. The act of providing or operating such equipment and setting up a remote "computer room" for a wire fraud gang is undoubtedly a violation of the crime of aiding trust.

Zhuang Xulong, associate professor at Soochow University's Wang Jian Law School, said that in practice, the types of acts of aiding trust mainly include: first, illegally buying and selling bank cards and telephone cards, and providing tools for transfer payments, cashing out and cash withdrawal for predicate crimes; Second, use bank accounts or third-party payment platform accounts to collect money for others, and then transfer money to designated accounts and earn commissions from them, acting as "tool people" for running points; Third, organize or help operate or use relevant equipment and software to help predicate crimes improve criminal efficiency, reduce criminal costs, and evade investigation.

Some technology company practitioners hold a fluke mentality and use "technological neutrality" as a shield, but in fact they have become a criminal "technical assist".

In the past year, public security organs across the country continued to carry out special crackdowns and rectifications against the black ash industry that provided illegal payment and settlement, technical support, promotion and diversion, and material support for telecommunications network fraud, online gambling and other crimes, detecting 3,1 related cases and destroying more than 8700,<> criminal gangs of various types, effectively preventing the spread of online criminal property crimes.

In response to the network black number that provides key material support for all kinds of network violations and crimes, local public security organs have carried out in-depth "broken numbers" concentrated crackdown and rectification actions, cracked down criminal gangs such as card merchants, number merchants, and code receiving platforms that maliciously registered and sold online black numbers, detected 1,1 related cases, destroyed more than 800 "cat pool" dens, and seized "cat pool". There were 1,1 illegal devices such as GOIP, more than 130 code connection platforms were shut down, 240.4200 million mobile phone black cards were seized, and more than <> million online black accounts were seized.

Adhere to the proportionality of criminal responsibility and punishment and precise strikes

In 2022, Wu Moumou and other 106 people were transferred to the Yongkang Municipal People's Procuratorate in Zhejiang Province for review and prosecution. During the review, 100 interns among the more than 21 suspects attracted the attention of the investigators. According to the investigation, these 21 are junior students of a vocational college in other provinces, mainly engaged in telemarketing work in the company, and belong to a telecommunications network fraud company by mistake.

By stratifying and classifying the personnel involved in the case based on the criteria of functional role, length of working time, and amount of illegal profits, the procuratorial organ severely cracked down on the shareholders, managers and core backbone of the fraudulent company, and filed a case to supervise the shareholders and 3 supervisors, of which 2 have already taken effect; At the same time, based on the comprehensive determination of job position, working hours, profits, etc., suggestions for probation, relatively non-prosecution, and handling opinions on the circumstances that are significantly minor and not considered to be a crime are respectively. After studying and judging the evidence and relevant facts of the whole case, the procuratorate determined that the 21 intern college students did not constitute a crime in accordance with the law, and the relevant cases were later withdrawn.

On June 2022, 6, with the direct participation and guidance of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the third-level procuratorates in Zhejiang Province and the third-level procuratorates in other provinces, together with the public security organs, publicly served the procuratorial recommendations locally, and at the same time publicly announced the withdrawal of the case to the intern college students involved in the case.

In response to new and prominent problems that have emerged in judicial practice, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Public Security, issued normative documents such as the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases Involving Telecommunications Network Fraud (II), and successively formulated and issued three batches of typical cases, clarifying issues such as the application of law and policy grasp of the crime of aiding trust.

Zhuang Xulong analyzed that in the composition of the crime of helping trust, the vast majority of criminals are young people under the age of 30, they lack social experience, it is difficult to resist the temptation of high-paying part-time jobs posted on the Internet, social software and word of mouth by "friends", coupled with their own weak legal awareness and luck, and eventually become accomplices of telecommunications fraud. He believes that when handling such cases, judicial organs should adhere to the principle of proportionality of criminal responsibility and punishment, strengthen source control, focus on cracking down on predicate crimes, and focus on punishing leaders and organizers of telecommunications fraud crimes.

"Criminals who have obtained a small amount of illegal gains should be substantively distinguished, and full use should be made of litigation systems such as non-prosecution, leniency in admitting guilt and accepting punishment, and the concept of putting education first and criminal law prevention first, and minimizing the severity of punishment for subjectively malignant lower elements, so as to achieve a balance between criminal responsibility and punishment." Zhuang Xulong said.

Rectify the black ash industry chain of electric fraud at the source

At present, the growth and spread of black and gray production on the Internet, and criminals cooperate with each other online and offline, at home and abroad, which has promoted the iterative escalation of telecom network fraud.

Some criminals help the upstream commit crimes by illegally selling or renting professional equipment or tools. Some criminals even use illegally obtained citizens' personal information to accurately "profile" victims and design personalized scams.

Such phenomena are more prominent in the fields of recruitment, internships, and part-time jobs. Some recruitment markets, especially online recruitment platforms, lack strict review and management of the qualifications of recruitment enterprises and the release of recruitment information, resulting in some people entering fraud criminal groups because of these illegal recruitment advertisements, which is very harmful.

The high incidence of the crime of aiding trust reflects that the work of network governance and social governance needs to be continuously improved.

"Procuratorial organs focus on groups with high incidence of cases, key industries, and areas with prominent problems, and strengthen the use of cases to explain the law and strengthen warning education through methods such as rule of law publicity, public hearings, and public announcement service. In conjunction with the education department, continue to carry out the 'rule of law into schools' campaign to enhance students' awareness of the rule of law. In conjunction with competent departments and industry associations, make good use of typical cases, increase the intensity of legal education for practitioners in the telecommunications, finance, and Internet industries, and increase professional literacy and awareness of the rule of law. The relevant person in charge of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said that compared with the back-end crackdown on telecom network fraud, front-end governance is more important, and prevention should be adhered to, and the interpretation of the law by case should be strengthened to prevent the masses from becoming criminal "tool people". (Rule of Law Daily)