In order to protect the interests of buyers and sellers, the formal second-hand trading platform has designed a complete set of transaction processes, which also makes this transaction method gain everyone's trust. However, some criminals have targeted this transaction method and staged a new type of scam that is fake and real.
On the afternoon of April 1, 2023, at the Guangxi Sports Center, the sky was drizzling, and people from all directions lined up one after another to check in for tickets, and in a few hours, a concert will be held here. At this time, Xiaoliang, a college student, was a little disappointed, she also wanted to go to the concert, but because she missed the ticket sales time, she didn't buy the ticket.
The opening is imminent, and a transfer message appears in the online comment area
At that time, some people started the live broadcast outside the concert site, and in the comment area, everyone was talking about topics related to the concert, and in these chats, a message about reselling tickets attracted Xiaoliang's attention.
Xiaoliang: I've been seeing someone say that he sells tickets, because he has been chatting and talking about selling tickets. Then I sent him a private message.
This message gave Xiao Liang, who had already given up going to the concert, suddenly had hope, and the other party told her that because she had something to do temporarily, she needed to resell the tickets at a price of 600 yuan.
Xiaoliang: At that time, I wanted to go again, and the opening time was relatively short, and then I didn't think too much, I was in a hurry, and I really wanted that ticket at that time.
After the price was determined, the two sides immediately discussed how to trade the tickets, and at that time, less than 3 hours before the start of the concert, Xiao Liang proposed that he hoped to meet and trade.
Xiao Liang: I think I said that it would be better to go to him to get a ticket and trade in person, but then he began to prevaricate for various reasons, saying that he couldn't see him.
The other party offered to trade through a second-hand trading platform
Xiao Liang said that he was still a little vigilant at the beginning and did not easily trade with the other party. During the discussion, the other party said that it could be traded through the second-hand trading platform. For the platform's trading rules, Xiao Liang also has some understanding, after the buyer confirms the transaction, the money will be deducted, but it is not immediately into the seller's account, the buyer needs to receive the item and click to confirm the receipt, the money will be on the other party's account, Xiao Liang believes that this transaction method is guaranteed, so she agreed.
Xiao Liang: He especially emphasized that after I entered the venue, I would make sure that the ticket was real, and then confirm the receipt. Now everyone is quite vigilant, and I feel that he thinks about me so much, unlike a liar, so I quite believe him.
Subsequently, the other party sent a transaction link to a second-hand trading platform, and after a brief view, Xiao Liang felt that there was no problem, so he clicked on payment. According to the agreement, the other party will immediately send the tickets by courier, and Xiao Liang was full of joy at that time, thinking that as soon as the tickets arrived, she would leave immediately, and she would be able to catch the concert. But soon she found out that she had been deceived, neither received the tickets nor the 600 yuan, what the hell was going on?
Imitate the regular platform page with the fake and the real is highly confusing
Realizing that she had been deceived, Xiao Liang immediately called the police, and at the same time she was also a little blind, not knowing what went wrong? After listening to Xiao Liang's narration, the police found that this seemed to be a new deception and had a strong deceptive nature.
After reporting the case, Xiao Liang and the police reviewed the whole process of being deceived together, Xiao Liang recalled that the other party sent a link to a second-hand trading platform, and after clicking on it, he entered the web interface of this trading platform.
Xiao Liang: The interface is indeed exactly the same, scan the code directly, and then there is a link to buy tickets directly.
Claiming to be a "card slip" asks the buyer to pay again
After clicking on the payment on this link, it will automatically jump to the payment interface, and after entering the password, Xiaoliang's 600 yuan will be deducted. But not long after, the other party sent a message saying that he had not received the money, and claimed that it was a "card order", asking Xiao Liang to pay again.
Xiaoliang: He said that it might be a network card, and then asked me to pay again. When the second one arrives, it will return my first one, which makes me feel suspicious.
At this time, Xiao Liang suddenly calmed down, she realized that she might have been deceived, and then she immediately opened the App of this second-hand trading platform to inquire.
Xiaoliang: When I clicked in and found that there was no order for me on it, I knew that I had been scammed.
After payment, I entered the official platform but did not find the order
The transaction was obviously completed on this second-hand trading platform just now, why can't I find the order now? In addition to this anomaly, the trabecular transfer record is also somewhat unusual. Generally, second-hand transactions occur between individuals, but judging by the transfer records provided by Xiaoliang, the money was transferred to a company, not an individual. In this way, there are still some doubts in this, but because of the eagerness to ask for tickets at that time, Xiao Liang did not check carefully, resulting in being deceived.
After the scam is successful, immediately cancel the social media account
At this point, the police have a preliminary judgment that someone used a fake second-hand trading platform link to defraud Xiaoliang. Subsequently, the police inquired about the social account that communicated with Xiaoliang about buying tickets.
Li Shujun, police officer of the special case group of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: After Xiaoliang came to report the case, when we traced down this account, we found that this account had been cancelled. At that time, when we inquired through the account of the victim who transferred the other party, we found that this account was actually a pool of funds, and there were a large amount of funds in it.
The suspect was apparently disguised, and the account of the chat should have been purchased through illegal channels, and the company receiving the money was also fake. The Nanning police used big data to analyze, and investigated step by step through the false links sent by the suspect, and finally locked the suspect in this case, Lu. After deployment, the police successfully arrested Lu.
"There is a guarantee from the platform party" to let down their guard but enter a fake website
Many fans thought that the platform payment was safe and secure, so they let down their guard, but what they didn't expect was to enter a phishing website. And the suspect is precisely taking advantage of this psychology. How are links to fake second-hand trading platforms made? It turns out that there is also a gray and black industry behind this kind of crime.
Combined with the interrogation and the victim's experience, the police believe that the core of this scam is the link to the fake second-hand trading platform, and the suspect takes advantage of the victim's trust in the formal second-hand trading platform to let them down their guard, and then carries out fraud with fake and real things.
Li Shujun, police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: Generally, the funds will be guaranteed in the regular platform, and the money will only be credited to the other party's account after he confirms the receipt of the goods. For consumers, I bought it on the platform, I can apply for a refund, contact customer service, and they still trust this aspect.
How links to fake second-hand trading platforms are generated
So, how is the link to this fake second-hand trading platform generated? The criminal suspect Lu confessed that he bought the crime software from an overseas chat platform, and after simply entering some information, this software can automatically generate fake links to different second-hand trading platforms according to demand.
Lai Xiangjie, police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: 1:1 reproduces the pages in the regular second-hand trading platform, which can basically be done with the real and very close. The pictures and labels produced in it are basically exactly the same as the real thing, and it is difficult for ordinary people to notice the difference in it.
During the interrogation, the police handling the case learned that as long as the crime software and tutorial were purchased, the suspect could easily make fake links to commit fraud.
Same modus operandi Ticket transfer scams occur in many places
The same concert ticket resale, the same fake second-hand trading platform link, Xiao Zhou, a college student in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, also suffered the same scam. In May 2023, Xiao Zhou saw a message on social platforms about the transfer of concert tickets at the original price, so she immediately contacted the other party.
Xiao Zhou: He said that the tickets could be sold at a flat price, and then we paid attention to each other, and he said that they could be traded through the (second-hand trading platform), and he also sent me a QR code picture, saying that it was already on the shelves.
After scanning the code to enter the webpage of a suspected second-hand trading platform, Xiao Zhou clicked to pay, and as soon as the money was transferred away, she found that she had been deceived.
Xiao Zhou: I asked him if he had received the money, he said no, pay it again, I found out that he was a liar at that time, I asked him to pay back the money, he actually told me to remember it for a long time next time, and blocked me.
The same fraud methods, the same words, and after learning about similar cases in other places, the Nanning police believe that there should be many people who are using this method to commit crimes.
Lai Xiangjie, police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: After further investigation, research and analysis, we found that there are still a large number of victim groups across the country.
Under the guidance and deployment of the Ministry of Public Security, public security organs across the country have carried out special crackdowns on similar local cases, and excavated a number of cases of building "fake second-hand trading platform links" to commit fraud, involving 158 criminal suspects and 1,297 related victims.
Mao Yiping, police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: The groups that commit crimes, as well as the victims of the group, are all young people, and this criminal method is taught by people, and if it is not eliminated in time, this new type of criminal method will spread and spread on the Internet.
Dig deep and investigate thoroughly to crack down on the masterminds behind the production and trafficking of criminal software
This time, it is mainly the criminal suspects who used fake second-hand transaction links to commit fraud, and the public security organs will continue to dig deep and thoroughly investigate the masterminds behind the production and sale of this crime software.
Mao Yiping, police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: In the process of researching, investigating, and judging this type of case, we also found some related gray and black industries involved in fraud, the crimes that build the upstream of these data, and the industries that support this type of crime. We are still investigating, and we will continue to work in depth to crack down on it.
Distinguish between real and false links and see the key "step"
As more and more suspects come to the case, more details about the scam are revealed, and the payment link of the fake trading platform made by the scammers looks very realistic at first glance, but as long as it is fake, it can be distinguished.
Criminal suspect Lu: After filling in the address, you can submit the order, and then click to pay immediately.
In this video provided by the police, the suspect is simulating the process of clicking on a fake link and making a payment, in the process, have you noticed any problems? If someone sends you such a link, will you be able to tell the real from the fake?
Clicking on the fake link will take you to the payment page immediately
According to the police handling the case, after clicking on the link of the fake second-hand transaction web page, it will jump to a payment page to trick the victim into transferring money. After clicking on the real web link, it will prompt that you need to jump to the App of the second-hand trading platform before you can make subsequent operations such as payment.
In the course of handling the case, the police also found that there was no strong connection between these criminal suspects, and they were able to independently commit crimes after they each purchased the software for committing the crime on an overseas website.
Mao Yiping, police officer of the special case group of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: Some of the mainstream wire fraud cases we are currently fighting are organized, contextual, and have a whole structure. A new type of case like this can be done by a single person.
Attract traffic through social platforms to find targets
Although they all committed crimes independently, the modus operandi of these suspects is the same, and after generating fake links, they will target them on social platforms.
Mao Yiping, police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: Its drainage channels are mainly in some mainstream social software in our country, to post, such as concert tickets or electronic products, if you like it and are willing to buy it, you will go to chat with him privately.
Use words to lure people into publishing fake links to defraud tickets
Using special words, the suspect guides the victim to trade on a fake second-hand trading platform, and if the victim fails to see through the scam in time, they will also trick the victim into continuing to transfer money on the grounds of order card slips and payment failures.
Lai Xiangjie, police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: When the victim finds that the money has been paid but there is no order from the formal trading platform, then the suspect will say that the system may be stuck in the form of inducement, and coax the victim for this reason. Guide the victim to make a secondary transfer and make a secondary payment.
Pretending to be a formal second-hand trading platform to commit crimes and damage the reputation of enterprises
The police also learned that the suspect committed fraud in the name of a regular second-hand trading platform, which caused some people to distrust these second-hand trading platforms after being deceived and damaged the reputation of the company.
Mao Yiping, a police officer of the patrol police (anti-fraud) detachment of the Nanning Municipal Public Security Bureau: He thought it was a real official website, which had a negative impact on the regular merchants and affected some of his reputation and credit.
Before this kind of scam forms a scale, the public security organs will crack down in a timely manner, and at the same time, through the exposure of fraud methods, help the public see through the routine and see through the scam.
Yang Wanfang, police officer of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security: Recently, there have been many concerts, exhibitions and other cultural and entertainment activities, and fraudsters have taken the opportunity to deceive, which has a bad social impact. Public security organs in various localities have continued to intensify their crackdowns, persisting in cracking down on small and small crimes as soon as they emerge, especially for the types of fraud that have been highlighted by the people, and we have continued to maintain strict crackdown and high pressure to resolutely curb the high incidence of such crimes.
Source: CCTV News