China News Service, July 22. According to the website of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the crime of helping information network criminal activities (hereinafter referred to as the crime of helping trust) is a new crime in the Criminal Law Amendment (IX), which was implemented in November 2015. It mainly refers to the perpetrator knowingly Others use the information network to commit crimes, provide Internet access, server hosting, network storage, communication transmission and other technical support for their crimes, or provide assistance in advertising promotion, payment and settlement, etc., are important "accomplices" in telecommunications network crimes.
In November 2019, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court formulated and issued the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Criminal Cases of Illegal Use of Information Networks and Helping Information Network Criminal Activities, which clarified the conviction and sentencing standards for the crime of aiding trust and related judicial determination issues.
In recent years, especially since the "broken card" operation in October 2020, the number of criminal cases prosecuted by procuratorial organs has risen rapidly, and it has now become the third most prosecuted crime in various criminal crimes (the first two are dangerous driving, theft).
The procuratorial organs have thoroughly implemented the criminal justice policy of combining leniency with strictness and the criminal justice policy of reducing arrests, prudent prosecution and prudence, punishing credit-aiding crimes in accordance with the law. In the first half of 2022, 64,000 people have been prosecuted for credit-supporting crimes, which has effectively promoted the crackdown on the source of telecommunications and cyber crimes.
Case handling found that social governance issues reflected by the high incidence of such crimes are also worthy of attention.
I. The basic situation of the crime of aiding trust
Judging from the number of incidents, the number of prosecutions for credit crimes has continued to decline since the beginning of this year, but the overall operation is still at a high level.
From 2015, when the criminal law added the crime of aiding trust, to before the "broken card" operation in October 2020, the procuratorial organs prosecuted more than 6,000 people for the crime of aiding trust.
Since the "broken card" operation, the number of prosecutions has increased linearly, especially in 2021, with a total of nearly 130,000 prosecutions, 9.5 times that of 2020.
The increase in the number of cases is closely related to the increased crackdown by law enforcement and judicial authorities on the illegal trading of "two cards" (ie bank cards and phone cards) during the "broken card" operation.
Since the fourth quarter of 2021, the number of people prosecuted for trust crimes has decreased quarter-on-quarter.
Among them, the first quarter of 2022 is down 33% from the fourth quarter of 2021; the second quarter is down 6% from the first quarter.
Judging from the prosecutors, the area involved is wide, and most of them are first-time offenders.
In the first half of 2022, the people prosecuted by the procuratorial organs for the crime of aiding credit will involve all provinces in the country, especially in key areas with high incidence of telecommunication network fraud, and the number of prosecutions for the crime of helping credit is relatively large.
Judging from the age of personnel, the phenomenon of younger age is prominent, with 64.8% under the age of 30, and 23.7% between the ages of 18 and 22.
Among the suspects, the low-educated and low-income groups account for the majority, 66.3% have a junior high school education or below, and 52.4% have no fixed occupation.
At the same time, the number of criminals who have a bachelor's degree or above, private enterprises, especially technology companies, with higher incomes continues to increase, and the crimes are mainly manifested in developing software and providing technical support.
Nearly 90% of the prosecutors have no criminal record and are first-time offenders.
From the perspective of behavior, the organizational model is more common, and the characteristics of the division of labor are prominent.
The crime of helping letters is mostly carried out in the form of criminal gangs, such as the organizational model of "Canon - Card Merchant - Card Head", with a relatively clear division of labor, which is convenient for continuous and large-scale support for predicate crimes.
Different from traditional criminal gangs, different levels and members of letter-aiding criminal gangs often do not meet each other. Usually, they are mainly connected through the Internet by means of code names and passwords. It seems that the connection is "loose", but the cooperation is "tacit". It is difficult to crack down. Larger; different levels and different members often provide help to multiple predicate criminal groups at the same time, which is more harmful.
Judging from the handling of cases, the upstream telecommunication cybercrimes helped by credit facilitation are mainly concentrated in the fields of telecommunication network fraud and online gambling. Provide tools for transfer payment, cash out, and cash withdrawal, accounting for more than 80% of the total number of prosecutions; the second is to provide professional technical support, software tools, such as GOIP equipment, batch registration software, etc., to improve crime efficiency and reduce crime costs; For criminal black-produced software tools, such as instant dial IP, etc., to evade supervision or evade investigation.
2. Issues worthy of attention
The procuratorial organs found that behind the surge in the crime of aiding credit, there are some social governance, especially network governance problems, some of which are still more prominent, and it is necessary to strengthen source control and collaborative governance.
First, the three types of personnel involved in the case deserve great attention.
The first category is school students.
Some students in the school are bewitched by fellow villagers and lawbreakers around the campus to sell and rent "Two Cards" and become "tools"; there are also those who recruit students to buy "Two Cards" on campus and develop into "card dealers".
For example, a university student, Mr. Tu, has been buying other people's bank cards inside and outside the campus for a long time, providing them to criminals, and at the same time instigating his girlfriend Wan (a student) to buy 8 sets of bank cards from classmates and sell them.
These bank cards were used to carry out the crime of telecommunication network fraud, and 21 victims transferred more than 2.07 million yuan of defrauded funds into the bank cards.
The second category is employees of technology companies.
With the idea of "making quick money" and "showing off their abilities", such personnel use "technical neutrality" as a shield, but in fact they become "technical assists" for crimes.
The third category is the insiders in the communications, finance and other industries.
They violated the "real-name system" and other regulations and handled a large number of "two cards" and illegally sold and provided them, becoming the main tool delivery channel for telecommunication cybercrime.
For example, an agent of a communication company in a campus network of a certain university uses the student information who applied for a mobile phone card to privately handle more than 500 campus broadband accounts, and sell them to upstream buyers at a price of 200 yuan per account, some of which are used for Telecommunication network fraud crime.
Second, the problems involved in recruitment, internships, and part-time jobs are more prominent.
Case handling found that some recruitment markets, especially online recruitment platforms, lacked strict review and management of the qualifications of recruiting companies and the release of job information, resulting in many personnel falling into the traps designed by criminals because of false and illegal recruitment advertisements, and finally committing the crime of aiding credit. .
Some schools do not provide adequate employment guidance and education management for students, lax practice management, and lax review of practice units. As a result, some students are deceived and participate in illegal and criminal activities on telecommunications networks during part-time internships.
For example, more than 20 students in a certain school were introduced by an intermediary company contacted by the school to practice in a certain company, but they were actually deceived into engaging in fraud and drainage work until they were found involved in the case.
After review, the procuratorial organ suggested that the public security organ withdraw the case, but it still had a huge impact on the psychology of the students.
Third, the source management of equipment tools needs to be further strengthened.
Some criminals help predicate crimes by illegally selling or renting specialized equipment or tools.
Some equipment and tools have normal uses, but due to the lack of necessary regulations and supervision in production, sales, and use, they are easily used for illegal crimes.
For example, GOIP equipment has its normal use in practice, but due to low access standards and lack of circulation control, such equipment has become the main criminal tool of overseas fraud groups.
Around its sales, rental, installation, and maintenance, a black industry is formed, and many people participate in it, committing the crime of aiding and trusting.
Another example is that corporate accounts are "favored" by telecommunication network fraud and online gambling groups due to the high transfer amount and the difficulty of risk control identification, and are specially used for collection and transfer.
Due to the low threshold for enterprise registration and the relatively loose review conditions for opening public accounts, a black industry has been formed around the opening and trading of public accounts.
Driven by interests, some personnel register shell companies, open public accounts, and provide them to predicate criminals.
3. Adhere to the combination of leniency and strictness, and the combination of punishment and prevention, and promote punishment according to law and effectively control crimes of helping trust
In response to the trends reflected in the handling of cases, the procuratorial organs adhere to the combination of leniency and strictness. While punishing the crime of aiding trust in the whole chain according to the law, it also strengthens the supervision of similar cases, promotes the governance of the source of complaints, deepens the interpretation of the law by case, and builds a social defense line for the crime of aiding trust.
The first is to highlight the key points of the crackdown, pay attention to the grasp of policies, and resolutely curb the proliferation and spread of the crime of facilitation.
Focusing on the cybercrime chain, strengthen the supervision of case filing, dig deep into the clues of the case, and trace the crime of helping letters from the downstream to the crimes of telecommunication network fraud and online gambling in the upstream, so as to realize the whole chain of crackdown.
Highlight the key points of the crackdown, and focus on the organizers, leaders, backbones, principals of the companies involved in the case, and "insiders" in the industry, and it is recommended to declare occupational bans on industry insiders in accordance with the law.
Conscientiously implement the criminal justice policy of fewer arrests, prudent prosecutions and prudent detention. For cases involving a large number of people, focus on distinguishing the status, role, classification, and tiered handling. For first-time offenders and occasional offenders, especially those who only sell a small amount of personal bank cards and have little illegal income, and plead guilty and accept punishment If there are cases, strictly grasp the prosecution standards, deal with them leniently in accordance with the law, and at the same time strengthen the two-way connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice to ensure good case handling results.
For example, when handling a case involving more than 20 school students buying and selling company accounts, the procuratorial organs paid attention to the combination of leniency and strictness, and treated them differently. They were tempted to handle and sell company accounts, obtain a small amount of money, and voluntarily pleaded guilty without causing serious consequences. Students who accept punishment shall decide not to prosecute in accordance with the law, and organize public hearings to strengthen the education of students and parents involved in the case; for "card dealers" who organize to recruit students to buy and sell accounts, they will be severely punished in accordance with the law. Effect.
The second is to improve legal provisions, strengthen case guidance, and improve the quality and efficiency of handling credit cases.
The iterative escalation of online black production behaviors has led to many new situations and new problems in the practical application of the crime of aiding trust.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Public Security, issued the "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases such as Telecommunications and Network Fraud (2)" and "Minutes of the Meeting on Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Action of "Breaking the Card", and issued three batches of typical cases. Cases, and further clarify issues such as the application of laws and policies for the crime of aiding trust.
At present, it is actively cooperating with the legislature to study and formulate an anti-telecom network fraud law, promote the establishment and improvement of relevant legal systems and legal responsibilities, and form a joint effort to jointly combat and control telecommunication network fraud crimes.
At the same time, it will also work with relevant departments to study and formulate guidelines for handling credit-aiding crime evidence, study and sort out typical cases of crimes involving "two cards", and strengthen the guidelines for handling cases.
The third is to strengthen the supervision of similar cases and coordinately promote the governance of online litigation sources.
There are many social governance and network supervision issues behind the letter-help case.
Procuratorial organs insist on performing their duties proactively in accordance with the law, deeply excavate and correlate the case-handling data of the crime of aiding credit, strengthen the reverse review of cases, realize the transformation of the mode of supervision from individual cases to supervision of similar cases, and promote the use of cases to promote governance.
For cases involving "two cards", "prosecution and early warning" was put forward to promote the supervision of the whole process, focusing on the review of new accounts, the inspection of existing accounts, and the risk control of high-risk accounts.
For example, the Zhejiang procuratorate has launched a special campaign to crack down on shell companies in the province, focusing on illegally opening and trading company accounts, to crack down on crimes such as telecommunication and network fraud by using shell companies to open corporate accounts and cut off related Black and gray industry chain, strengthen source governance.
Another example is that the Beijing procuratorial organs, together with the public security organs, urge financial institutions that have issued a large number of fraudulent bank cards to urge rectification in the form of "public security reminder letters + procuratorial suggestions" to consolidate the responsibilities of relevant industry entities.
For cases involving technical support, focus on finding source problems in the supervision of technical tools and Internet services, as well as compliance risks in the operation and management of technology companies, and work with relevant departments and industry associations to jointly promote integrated governance and promote the healthy development of the Internet industry.
For example, the Tianjin procuratorate found that individual online games could easily induce illegal and criminal problems during the handling of the case, conducted in-depth discussions with game R&D companies, urged companies to strictly implement the filing system, prudently reviewed the promotion model of partners, and strengthened the monitoring and investigation of illegal and criminal information during the game process. , to promote enterprises to strengthen compliance construction.
The fourth is to insist on prevention first, strengthen the interpretation of the law by cases, and prevent ordinary people from becoming criminal "tools".
Weak awareness of the rule of law is an important reason why most people commit the crime of aiding trust.
The procuratorial organs focus on high-incidence groups, key industries, and areas with prominent problems, and strengthen the interpretation of the law by cases and strengthen warning education by means of publicity on the rule of law, public hearings, public announcements, etc.
In conjunction with the education department, we will continue to carry out the "rule of law into campus" activities to enhance students' awareness of the rule of law.
Together with competent authorities and industry associations, make good use of typical cases, increase legal education for practitioners in the telecommunications, finance, and Internet industries, and enhance professional quality and awareness of the rule of law.