On August 8 this year, the procurator in charge discussed the details of the case with the police of the special case group.

Since the beginning of this year, news about overseas telecom fraud has frequently become the focus of society. Who are the people in the overseas wire fraud company? What drives them to cross the border and step on the "red line" of the law? Previously, the public security organs of Yangxin County, Hubei Province, cracked a cross-border telecommunications network fraud case involving Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia and other places. Recently, the reporter rushed to Yangxin County to visit the prosecutors, police, and people involved in the case, striving to restore the truth of overseas telecom fraud.

Calm "big shots"

On April 4 this year, Tan, who was in hiding everywhere, was arrested in a community in Gong'an County, Hubei Province. On the same day, the police of the Yangxin County Public Security Bureau brought him back to Yangxin for review.

Talking about the arrest is a "windfall". In a previous overseas telecommunications fraud case cracked in Heyang County, Shaanxi Province, several people involved in the case (all of whom were handled in separate cases) invariably mentioned him when they confessed their experiences. At that time, the police who participated in the arrest of Tan did not realize that this young man with a good look was actually a "big man" in an overseas wire fraud company.

"Did you know that you could face more than ten years in prison?"

"Really? That was so much lighter than I thought, I thought I would have to give a life sentence..."

When answering a question from Xiang Kehui, assistant prosecutor of the Second Procuratorate Department of the Yangxin County Procuratorate, Tan was very calm. In fact, he had already "rehearsed" this scene in his heart. When Tan returned to China a year ago, he heard that a companion had been arrested. So, he began to search around for information, and recorded the time, place, punishment and other information of his companions in detail in a mobile phone memo. Tan wanted to learn about the police movements through the people who were arrested, and even tried to deduce the legal consequences he might face through the punishments of others.

From bar DJ to new "general agent"

In 2018, Tan, who worked as a DJ in a bar in Bangkok, Thailand, learned from a casual chat with a customer that a "win-win company" operating an online gambling platform in Laos was recruiting salesmen. The salesman is mainly responsible for "drainage", that is, finding suitable objects on major social platforms and inducing them to invest money on the online gambling platform. I heard that being a salesman is not only easier than DJ, but also has a higher salary, so Tan is very excited. With the idea of giving it a try, Tan returned to his hometown Yangxin and made an appointment with five or six friends, and boarded a plane to Laos together.

Before the official start of work, the company has a special person to train them. Tan is good at choosing suitable words according to different goals, and performs well in a group of people. Half a year later, the company adjusted the incentive mechanism, and whoever can bring in more people will be able to get a more generous commission. Tan thought of his "talkative" fellows, so he began to encourage his relatives and friends in his hometown to go over to earn money together. Soon after, more than a dozen people went to Laos under Tan's arrangement.

From this time on, Tan Mou officially became the company's "general agent" of Yangxin, responsible for recruiting and managing all Yangxin personnel of the company. Compared with the salesman, he can charge an additional 30% of the "performance" of other fellow villagers as a commission. Since then, Tan has left the "front-line" work.

Xiang Kehui introduced the structure of "win-win company" to reporters. The overall distribution of "win-win companies" is pyramidal: boss - general agent (commission 30%) - secondary agent (commission 10% to 15%) - supervisor (commission 10%) - team leader (commission 5%) - salesman (commission 5% to 10%). "There will be multiple general agents under the boss, and there will be multiple secondary agents under the general agent, and so on. Agents are generally divided by region, the supervisor is responsible for managing the personnel of an office, and the team leader is mainly responsible for training new salesmen and guiding them to carry out specific operations. Xiang Kehui also summed up the common denominator of these criminal suspects: their educational qualifications are generally low, they are young, and most of them are unable to undertake technical jobs.

The "Talent Training Model" of Overseas Wire Fraud Companies

Tan said that the first thing to learn in a "win-win company" is "self-brainwashing". Many newcomers will feel guilty after deceiving others at the beginning, and the company will arrange a special person to provide them with "psychological counseling". Tan will also enlighten them from the bottom of his heart, instilling in them the ideas of "this kind of thing is what you and I want", "it is their own choice to be deceived", "even if they are not deceived by the company, they will be deceived by others".

According to Tan, in order to cater to the social habits of most people, the "win-win company" sets the working hours from 12 noon to 10 pm. "It's easier to find a target at this time, and people are more likely to be swayed by emotions at night."

Under the reporter's questioning, Tan also mentioned the "talent training model" of the wire fraud company. When a new salesman enters the company, the training content includes: being familiar with the gameplay of major popular social software, finding and analyzing the target, packaging his own account, etc. The company will use many "successful cases" to train newcomers in speech skills, and will also teach newcomers how to deal with emergencies.

After the salesman enters the actual operation stage, each person will receive a computer, a mobile phone and a phone card, and then register the account of each social platform as required. Then, they will establish themselves as successful people such as bank executives, financial planners, and engineering designers on their bios, and then look for men or women who like to show off their wealth in their daily posts with words such as "emptiness" and "loneliness" in their personal profiles on social platforms. After greeting, if you find that the other party has the intention of making friends, gradually cultivate feelings and gain the trust of the other party. Finally, the salesman will "inadvertently" tell the other party that he has a channel to make money and show his balance on the fraudulent platform, and guide the other party to bet on the gambling platform step by step.

Tan said frankly that the odds and balances of online gambling platforms can be modified in the background. It can ensure that the victim wins every game at the beginning, and can also withdraw money. However, as the victim continues to increase the gambling capital, the chances of winning will gradually decrease, and in the end, even the principal will not be recovered.

When talking about overseas life, Tan said: "The company stipulates that salesmen are generally not allowed to go out of the park, but I have acquaintances under my hands, and I will take them out of the park to relax when I have time, and I can also dispel some of their thoughts of returning to China." Tan said that if the person brought does not complete the agreed time (usually one year), he, as an agent, needs to bear their round-trip transportation expenses, accommodation expenses, and food and accommodation expenses after arriving at the company, so he hopes that everyone can stay in the company steadily.

In May 2019, the "Win-Win Company" was disbanded after being surrounded by local armed forces. During his tenure in the company, Tan made a total profit of more than 5 yuan through direct fraud and obtaining "commissions" from others.

More than 60 "returning" people involved in fraud were brought into the case

Because the location of the case of Tan X suspected of fraud and organizing others to illegally cross the national (border) border was outside the country, the internal hierarchy of the gang was complex, the number of people involved in the case was large, and the concealment was high, which brought great difficulties to the investigation and collection of evidence, and the public security organs were unable to quickly clarify the facts of the crimes of the persons involved in the case after filing the case. After communication and coordination, the Yangxin County Procuratorate took the initiative to send personnel to intervene in accordance with the law, and went to Heyang County, Shaanxi Province to investigate and collect evidence together with the police of the Yangxin County Public Security Bureau. In response to key issues such as the time of Tan X's participation in the overseas fraud group, his role in the overseas fraud group, the mode of fraud, and the total number of people in the fraud group, the procurators guided the investigators to focus on interrogating the criminal suspects detained in Heyang County.

"The public security organs have carried out a centralized arrest of returnees who have ascertained their true identities, analyzed the suspects' financial transactions, verified and compared the information of relevant personnel, and colluded and merged the verified information on fraudulent apps, websites, domain names, and other information on the national anti-fraud big data platform, and made every effort to verify the victims' situation." Ming Yao, the policeman handling the case, said.

At the same time, the court also held a meeting with the Yangxin County Public Security Bureau to sort out the clues involved in the case transferred by Heyang County, and guide the public security organs to start the investigation from the entry and exit records of the persons involved. "In handling the case, we focused on the analysis and judgment of the relevant flight information, combined with the social relations of the outbound personnel and the confession of Tan X after the case, to further lock down the number of people involved in overseas fraud. The public security organs have carried out online pursuit of criminal suspects with relatively sufficient evidence, breaking them one by one, to ensure that the entire chain of crackdowns is achieved. Xiang Kehui added.

After investigation, from March 2018 to April 3, Tan successively served as the agent of Yangxin nationality in four companies: "Win-Win Company" in the Golden Triangle of Laos, a company in Manila, Philippines, "Excellence Company" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and "Hengrong Company" in the Golden Triangle of Laos. During this period, Tan made a total of more than 2022 yuan in illegal profits, and the amount involved was as high as more than 4,4 yuan.

After investigation, from March 2018 to April 3, Tan and his subordinates successively recruited more than 2022 fellow villagers to go to Laos to commit telecom fraud, and 4 people have now been arrested, and the procuratorate has approved the arrest of 70 people and prosecuted 62 people in accordance with the law. At the same time, the procuratorial organs made a decision to approve the arrest of four key members of the criminal group who were hiding abroad and had not returned.

At present, the case is being further tried, and the serial case and other persons involved in the case are also being reviewed simultaneously.