Xinhua investigation|Each person defrauded 29.9 yuan, and more than 50,000 people were fooled—— a "micro" fraud case was tracked
Each person was deceived by 29.9 yuan, more than 50,000 people across the country were deceived, and the victims were all over 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Leading the "micro" scam was an old lady in her 70s and two unemployed people.
A few days ago, the Public Security Bureau of Panshi City, Jilin Province reported that the local police cracked a case of fraud under the guise of the "digital economy + pension" project.
The main suspect in this case has been approved for arrest by the Panshi City People's Procuratorate. The reporter interviewed several police officers and victims who handled the case, talked to the main suspects, and uncovered the inside story of the case.
29.9 yuan to buy an equity agreement, can get 1.1 million yuan pension subsidy?
A few days ago, Lu Shaobin, director of the dispatch office of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Panshi City Public Security Bureau, told reporters that on September 28 last year, he received a clue about a fraud case and found that Dong Mouyu, a resident of Panshi City, was suspected of committing a major crime.
The Panshi police immediately set up a special team and found that 30-year-old Dong Mouyu's wife, Zhao Mouli, had a large amount of capital income from November 2022 to August 2023, all of which came from the online store of an e-commerce platform.
The online store was established in November 2022 and only sells one type of "Equity Agreement" at a price of 29.9 yuan. After inquiry, the online store has a turnover of more than 20,000 orders, and the buyers are almost all over the country, most of them are elderly people over 60 years old, and the shipping address is an express station in Yantai City, Shandong Province.
The money seized by the police. (Courtesy of the Police)
The task force also found that Zhao Mouli's parents also have an e-commerce online store under their names, selling the same kind of "Equity Agreement", and Zhao Mouli has close contacts with Yang Mouhui, Wu Moulong, Dong Mouyu, 71-year-old Liu Mouxiang in Yicheng City, Hubei Province and others, among which Liu Mouxiang has participated in a number of national asset unfreezing fraud cases, and has been sentenced to a suspended sentence by the Henan Provincial People's Court for fraud.
The police found out that Liu Mouxiang and others preached the benefits and pension policies in various WeChat groups every day, and falsely claimed that each person only needed to pay 29.9 yuan to purchase the "Equity Agreement", and they could join the pension organization and get a pension subsidy of 1.1 million yuan.
A septuagenarian and two unemployed people led the scam
After finding out the facts of the gang's crimes, the Panshi City Public Security Bureau launched a unified arrest operation on October 19 last year, and members of the special case team went to all parts of the country to arrest 15 criminal suspects, including Dong Mouyu, Wu Moulong, Liu Mouxiang, Zhao Mouli, and Yang Mouhui, and seized more than 520,000 yuan of stolen money involved in the case.
Zhang Haonan, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Panshi Public Security Bureau, introduced that in June 2022, Liu Mouxiang discussed with Dong Mouyu and Wu Moulong to use the "digital economy + pension" project to commit fraud.
Wu Moulong provided the organizational membership structure table, Liu Mouxiang served as the "minister", and was responsible for recruiting and appointing "deputy ministers" and "propaganda ministers", etc., and each member was responsible for the development of the downline. Wu Moulong and Dong Mouyu were responsible for making the "Equity Agreement", selling it on the online store, and sending the link to the equity book to Liu Mouxiang, who organized the sales layer by layer.
It is understood that Liu Mouxiang, Wu Moulong, and Dong Mouyu will issue benefit fees to the responsible persons at all levels according to the performance of the fraudulent money. The fraud gang lasted 14 months, sold nearly 100,000 copies of the "Equity Agreement", killed more than 50,000 people, and involved more than 2.67 million yuan, covering 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country.
The victim, Ms. Chen, told the reporter how she was deceived: after she was pulled into Liu Mouxiang's propaganda group, she saw Liu Mouxiang talking about the national pension policy for the people in the group, which was full of pictures and texts, and very inflammatory. Ms. Chen has no pension security, so she is very tempted. With the help of others, she paid 29.9 yuan to buy a letter of agreement.
"Anyway, it's just this little money, and it doesn't matter if it's cheated, what if it's true. When I bought it, I said that I would return the money in September 2023, and then I said that in March 2024, I didn't know that I was fooled after the group was disbanded. I didn't graduate from elementary school, and I didn't know what equity was, so I should spend money to buy lessons. Ms. Chen said.
Why did more than 50,000 people fall for the clumsy scam?
Liu Mouxiang is a 71-year-old lady, 35-year-old Wu Moulong and 30-year-old Dong Mouyu have no formal jobs. I really can't imagine that so many people have fallen for it, which is obviously a very clumsy scam. Kang Liang, an instructor of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Panshi Public Security Bureau, said.
On January 16, in the Panshi City Detention Center, the reporter met Wu Moulong, the main suspect in the case.
According to Wu, he was born in the countryside of Panshi City, graduated from secondary school, and later lived in Yantai, Shandong. When Dong Mouyu and Liu Mouxiang discussed with him to do something "big", he was tempted. "We cobbled together the so-called Equity Agreement. At that time, it was discussed that one would be sold for more than 90 yuan, but later considered that most of the people facing it were the elderly, and the amount of money might not come up, so the price was 29.9 yuan. There is very little money, and even if some people know that they have been scammed, they will not come to it. Wu Moulong said.
Wu Moulong told reporters that the cost of an agreement from printing to mailing to the victim is about 5 yuan, and the rest is "pure profit", which is distributed by the three of them. "Later, more and more people bought it, and some people asked for 1.1 million yuan in cash. Because the time for the fulfillment of the promise was getting closer and closer, we were very unsure, so we secretly closed all the online stores and some propaganda groups were disbanded, but we still did not escape the investigation of the police. ”
Vehicles seized by the police. (Courtesy of the Police)
The police handling the case said that the schemers of the scam closely combined with the policy of benefiting the people to carry out "publicity", which was confusing to a certain extent. Propagandists say that this is a state secret policy, and only a small number of people know about it, and "the more people who know, the more disadvantageous it is for those who join", so that victims "must not speak out". In addition, most of the victims are elderly people over 60 years old, and most of them have a fluke mentality.
Zheng Longyu, political commissar of the Panshi City Public Security Bureau, said that although the amount of such fraud is not large, the number of victims is large. Until the incident, some victims did not think that they had been deceived, but that the government subsidy policy had not been fulfilled. In response to such cases, the police must crack down on the whole chain to clarify the truth of the case to the victims, so as to avoid causing more adverse effects.
The local police said that it is necessary to intensify the crackdown on such fraud crimes, strengthen cooperation with the procuratorate, courts and other institutions, establish an effective mechanism, and form a joint force to crack down.
The police also reminded that criminals often use current affairs to design scam content, and the general public, especially the elderly, should always be vigilant and not believe in information from unknown sources, strangers' inducements and promises.