Chinanews.com, Beijing, June 17 (Reporter Xing Chong) Recently, webcasting platforms have developed rapidly. Various online celebrity anchors have attracted a large number of fans, and some fraudsters have targeted this emerging industry.

At the press conference of the Ministry of Public Security held on the 17th, Shi Yijun, head of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, reminded the majority of netizens that they must raise their awareness of prevention when watching live webcast activities.

Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security

  Shi Yijun said that scammers often pretend to be internet celebrity anchors and trick victims into recharging and spending on live broadcast platforms in the name of marriage, love, and making friends. The amount involved is large, and there are many defrauded people and serious harm.

Recently, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau successfully eliminated a criminal gang that used a live broadcast platform to commit fraud, arrested 340 criminal suspects, and cracked 197 cases after special investigations.

  "It has been found through work that the gang has adopted a corporate operation model. It has successively developed 91 agents in more than 10 provinces and cities across the country, and used major online game live broadcast rooms to place advertisements to attract traffic. The gang members pretend to be Internet celebrity anchors and make friends through marriage and love. In the name of scams, the victims were tricked into recharging rewards, and the funds involved in the case amounted to more than 47 million yuan.” Shi Yijun said.

  Shi Yijun said that on the basis of preliminary investigations and judgments, the task force has ascertained the organizational structure and hiding location of the criminal gang, and has a large amount of criminal facts and evidence.

On May 13, under the unified command of the Ministry of Public Security, the Shanghai Public Security Agency dispatched more than 800 police forces to Henan, Guangdong, Liaoning, Hainan and other places to carry out a centralized network collection operation, successfully destroying the live broadcast platform fraud group.

  Shi Yijun reminded the majority of netizens that in watching live webcast activities, they must raise their awareness of prevention, and do not trust any requests for remittances and rewards for various reasons to avoid falling into the trap of fraud.

(Finish)