China News Service, Shanghai, March 19 (Reporter Li Shuzheng) Paint spraying, ordinary quartz stone turns into "jade stone" in seconds; the live broadcast of stone opening, opening and closing is decided by the anchor; on-site recycling, criminals dress up in multiple roles. Buy and sell... The rough stone buying and selling in the live broadcast room that seems to be "lucky" is actually a scam carefully designed and fully controlled by fraudsters.
The above is a new fraud "routine" disclosed by the Shanghai police on the 19th about "live broadcast selling jade rough stones".
So far, Shanghai Pudong police have smashed 6 fraud gangs of this type, arrested 130 suspects, and involved more than 20 million yuan.
With paint spraying, ordinary quartz stone turns into "raw jade stone" in seconds.
Photo courtesy of Pudong Branch of Shanghai Public Security Bureau
A case of being defrauded when purchasing raw jade stones was reported to the police, which brought this new type of fraud "routine" to the surface.
In October 2023, the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau received a report from a citizen, Mr. Fan, saying that he transferred 2,688 yuan to the merchant "Senhan Jewelry Store" on an online live broadcast platform to purchase jade. After paying the money, he was kicked out of the live broadcast room. WeChat was also blocked by customer service.
Mr. Fan told the police that when he was browsing short videos, he came across an advertisement for "Buying and selling jade in the live broadcast room, and there are benefits for newcomers", so he added the customer service WeChat account.
The customer service told me that as long as I entered the live broadcast room, I could get a rough stone for free, and pushed a link to the live broadcast platform and the live broadcast room number.
After entering the live broadcast room, I saw the anchor and a self-proclaimed jade merchant introducing a bright gray stone with a price tag of 8,880 yuan. It was quickly bought by 10 buyers. Then the anchor walked to the corner and turned his back to the camera. "Cut the stone", there was a loud cutting sound, and when I turned around again, the corners of the stone in my hand had been cut, revealing a bit of "green" that looked like jade.
The jade merchant immediately offered to recycle the jade for 10,800 yuan. In just a few minutes, the 10 buyers collectively earned a price difference of 1,920 yuan.
The picture shows the "jade stone" appearing in the live broadcast room.
The surface and cut surfaces of these rough stones are spray-painted, and the corresponding rough stones are selected to "appear" according to transaction needs, thereby controlling the results of the stone opening.
The rough stones that have been repainted afterwards will return to the live broadcast room.
Photo by China News Network reporter Li Shuzheng
After watching several rounds of stone cutting and buying and selling, Mr. Fan couldn't help but be tempted by such a short-term, high-return buying and selling method, so he began to participate in joint buying. Within two days, he transferred more than 12,000 yuan and bought and sold 12 orders, with some profits and some losses, until the end. After one payment, I was kicked out of the live broadcast room, and customer service lost contact.
The stone cutting process is completely invisible, the rough stones are sold but not shipped but recycled on the spot, and the contact is immediately blocked after large transfers... These details that are different from normal shopping have attracted the attention of the Pudong police, who believe that this is a kind of business. A new method of defrauding people in the name of rough stones was formed, so a task force was formed to carry out investigation. While searching for the victim buyers to obtain more evidence, the police were organized to go to Yunnan to investigate the criminal dens.
Mr. Li, who lives in Sichuan and suffered losses of more than 350,000 yuan, did not realize he had been deceived until the Shanghai police came to his door.
In one month, he made a total of 41 payments to the other party's account through bank transfers, with the highest amount reaching 160,000 yuan. It was not until the last transfer of 5,000 yuan that he was kicked out of the live broadcast room and blocked by the other party.
During this period, he only made money from two small orders, and he always thought it was because he was unlucky and failed to open the stone that he lost money.
The police said that there are many similar cases and most of the victim buyers are not aware that they have been deceived.
In Yunnan, police investigation found that the so-called "Senhan Jewelry Store" did not exist.
Starting from the suspect's identity information they already had, and after many days of visits and investigations, the task force discovered a suspicious villa in a local villa area where live broadcast e-commerce companies gathered. It was brightly lit late at night, and there were waves of people cutting stones from time to time. The sound of machinery and various signs indicate that this is the live broadcast hideout of the fraud gang.
On the evening of December 29, 2023, the task force launched an arrest operation with the support of the local public security agency. 35 criminal suspects headed by Jiang were arrested on the spot. Computers, mobile phones, paint, rough stones, scripts, etc. were seized on the spot. A large number of items involved.
After investigation, in order to obtain illegal benefits, the criminal suspect Jiang and others purchased ordinary quartz stones produced locally, sprayed them with paint and used them in the name of "raw jade stones" to conduct false stone excavations, false joint purchases, and false recycling in the live broadcast room. Defrauding victim buyers of money.
According to Qi Weiyi, deputy director of the Public Security Department of the Lingang New Area of the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, the gang members have a clear division of labor. The traffic recruiters are responsible for advertising on the short video platform to attract potential victims, while the customer service staff further screen targets through chat communication and Introduce it into a "tailor-made" live broadcast room.
Other members formed a live broadcast team. Under the command of the team leader, those who played the role of anchor and jade merchant sang and sang in front of the camera touting their business, while those who played the role of audience helped warm up the atmosphere and pretended to participate in the purchase of rough stones in the audience.
"In fact, the surface and cut surfaces of the rough stones used in the live broadcast room are spray-painted. The corresponding rough stones are selected according to transaction needs to control the results of the stone opening." Qi Weiyi said that the rough stones that are repainted afterwards will return to the live broadcast. time, truly achieving "zero loss".
The Pudong police in Shanghai uncovered a fraud gang that used fake stone cutting and recycling methods to defraud money under the guise of "live broadcast selling jade rough stones" and arrested 35 suspects including Jiang.
Photo courtesy of Pudong Branch of Shanghai Public Security Bureau
After preliminary verification, since October 2023, the fraud gang has defrauded more than 2 million yuan from all over the country.
At present, 35 criminal suspects including Jiang have been arrested by the procuratorate in accordance with the law on suspicion of fraud, and the case is under further investigation.
Since this year, the Pudong police have continued to pay attention to this type of jade trading fraud, in-depth pursuit of relevant criminal clues, and severely cracked down on this type of fraud.
The police said that so far, they have destroyed 6 fraud gangs in other provinces and cities, arrested 130 suspects, and involved more than 20 million yuan.
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