Make 10,000 yuan in cash into "flowers" and put them in a gift box for your mother as a birthday gift; On the so-called wedding anniversary, he ordered a cake containing tens of thousands of yuan in cash to give to his wife...... Why did the gifts given by these "big filial sons" and "good husbands" make merchants fall into the trap?
"This is a new type of money laundering method for wire fraudsters. After the fraudsters ask the merchant for a large amount of consumption such as customized gift boxes, they get the merchant's bank card number on the grounds of payment, and then forward the card number to the victim of the wire fraud. According to the relevant person in charge of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, the "payment for goods" is actually the stolen money in the case of wire fraud, and the wire fraudsters use this to quickly launder money.
In the face of a variety of tricks and tricks, the public security organs called on the public to be more vigilant. The theme of the 2024 "National Anti-Fraud in Action" Concentrated Publicity Month is "Be Vigilant against New Fraud Methods and Don't Be a Tool for Fraud".
01
What is a "tool man" for wire fraud? Is there a violation of the law or a crime?
The "tool man" of wire fraud is a metaphor, and it is a general term for the people involved in helping the wire fraud gang to carry out illegal and criminal acts.
At present, the situation of wire fraud is grim and complex. In the criminal chain of wire fraud, wire fraudsters need to disperse the fraudulent money into other people's bank accounts at multiple levels to conceal the source of the fraudulent money and evade the investigation of the public security organs.
Overseas wire fraudsters usually remotely control domestic mobile phones and card-inserting devices to make fraudulent calls, pretending to be domestic calls.
Fraudsters also use other people's Internet accounts, or fraudulently use their identities to defraud relatives and friends of money, or use them to publish illegal advertisements, promote drainage information, and real-name verified payment accounts will also be used to launder money...
In order to complete the above-mentioned illegal and criminal acts, wire fraudsters wantonly purchase and obtain "two cards" and personal information, develop online black and gray industries such as "running points" money laundering and promoting drainage, and use a variety of means to lure and deceive the masses to become "tool people" for wire fraud.
In 2023, there will be 212,000 cases of public security organs across the country establishing credit and illegally using information networks, an increase of 20.4% year-on-year.
There are many kinds of electronic fraud methods, and there are also many types of "tool people" for electronic fraud. "All aspects of telecommunications network fraud need 'tool people', and there are different types of 'tool people' such as card supply, financial payment tools, transfer of case funds, and provision of communication technical support." According to the relevant person in charge of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, according to the law, if the "tool person" has the intention and negligence to commit a crime, it constitutes an accomplice to the crime of aiding trust and fraud.
Most of the wire fraud gangs are hiding abroad, and with GOIP devices, criminals can remotely control domestic mobile phones and card devices to make fraudulent calls abroad.
At present, simple GOIP devices have appeared, and "two mobile phones and one audio cable" can make such a device. Fraudsters use high salaries to lure minors, school students, and recent college graduates to make phone calls and participate in crimes.
The "Law of the People's Republic of China on Countering Telecommunications Network Fraud" stipulates that anyone who organizes, plans, implements, or participates in telecommunications network fraud activities, or provides assistance to telecommunication network fraud activities, and constitutes a crime, shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with law. Where the conduct in the preceding paragraph does not constitute a crime, the public security organs are to detain them for between 10 and 15 days, confiscate unlawful gains, and impose a fine.
02
High-paying "part-time", flying "windfall"? In fact, it is money laundering by wire fraud!
What are the methods used by wire fraudsters to trick the masses into becoming "tool people"? How to avoid becoming a "tool man" for wire fraud?
"Payroll day! The salary is 300 yuan a day! Beauty mall procurement part-time recruitment! A few days ago, Xiaomei, a college student in Ningbo, Zhejiang, saw a recruitment advertisement on the Internet. Xiaomei contacted the advertisement publisher to apply for a job, and the other party told her that the purchase money would be transferred to her bank account in advance, and she went to the bank to withdraw cash and then went to the mall to purchase as required. However, after Xiaomei withdrew the 150,000 yuan from her bank account and handed it over to the "staff", the other party asked her to go back and wait for the notice on the grounds of "out of stock today", and then there was no news. Xiaomei received a reward of 1,500 yuan, but she also waited for the police. Only then did she know that the 150,000 yuan she took out was all money defrauded by wire fraudsters. It is understood that wire fraudsters trick college students into providing bank cards for money laundering under the guise of considerable "part-time" remuneration. Many young people, especially students, are shy and unfamiliar with the world, and can easily become the target group of criminal gangs.
Around money laundering, wire fraudsters will make up a variety of high-sounding reasons to lure people into the bait: in order to avoid taxes, part-time workers need to hold bank cards and transfer money face-to-face with the cooperation of staff; Sales have performance pressure, and hope to transfer money on behalf of the performance; Due to financial problems, I want to find someone to help transfer money and brush the bank statement...
"Hello, this fund is distributed by the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, and there is no need to pay any fees throughout the process......" In February this year, Liu, who was in his 60s, suddenly received such a text message. After Liu added the other party as a WeChat friend according to the SMS link, the other party claimed to be a government department worker, and Liu was identified as the target of assistance. After that, the other party said that in order to package Liu as "making ends meet", a large amount of bank transactions and the account that was finally cleared were needed as application items. At the request of the other party, Liu successively remitted a number of remittances received to the designated account. Soon, his account showed to be frozen. When the police came to the door, he woke up like a dream.
In addition to "help money", loans can also become "bait".
"Immediate loan, no mortgage, no credit investigation......" vigilance! Such loans with lenient terms and fast disbursements are basically scams. Fraudsters pretending to be staff of financial institutions will pretend to operate the loan process, and then claim that the borrower's "bank statement is too low" and needs to be "bank flow packaging". In fact, the lender's bank account was used to launder money by wire fraud.
03
"Attracting fans and draining" and "scanning the code to give gifts"? In fact, it is a "front-end service" of wire fraud
"Drainage" is the "front-end service" where the scam begins. The victim was induced to join a designated WeChat group, QQ group or other group by various "drainage" methods, and then was defrauded. Among them, it is time-consuming and laborious to pull people into the group, and it is not conducive to "hiding behind the scenes", so many fraudsters recruit others to become "drainage" tool people.
"Offline drainage" mostly appears in the form of "scanning the code to give gifts" and "supporting entrepreneurship", and the fraudsters publish part-time advertisements on the Internet, asking part-time employees to attract the masses to scan the code to join the group or pull people to build a group on the grounds of giving gifts.
For example, Ding and Wu from Luliang, Yunnan Province, saw a part-time job advertisement in WeChat Moments, so they went to the night market as required to do "stall drainage", distributing small gifts to unspecified groups of people and pulling them into various chat groups. Ding and Wu's behavior was reported, and the police quickly brought the two back for investigation.
The manifestation of "online drainage" is mostly in the form of pretending to be customer service to call others and pulling people into designated chat groups.
Nanning public security once smashed a den that pretended to be a customer service to drain traffic, and arrested 21 suspects on the spot. Among them, Li, the person in charge of the "company", received a "drainage" order from the Internet, recruited employees to call others, and used specific words to pull people into the designated chat group. Subsequently, the wire fraudsters carried out rebates and false investment and financial fraud against the people who joined the group.
In such cases, although some people realize that the "drainage" work is not normal, they still engage in it despite the temptation of money. In either case, the essence is to help the fraudsters "drain", and according to the law, they are suspected of aiding trust or fraud.
04
Some "tool people" are not suspected of violating the law and committing crimes, but the lesson is still painful!
The operators of flower shops and cake shops who were deceived into becoming "tool persons" for money laundering in the above article are not suspected of violating the law and committing crimes after investigation by the public security organs. However, due to being involved in telecom network fraud, some businesses have to suffer certain economic losses. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain a high degree of vigilance against any form of solicitation by "tool people" of wire fraud. In addition to flower gift boxes and cakes, cigarettes, alcohol, gold, mobile phones and other high-priced and easy-to-realize goods will become the carriers for wire fraudsters to deceive "tool people" for money laundering.
Fraudsters will also weave traps for preferential recharge of phone bills, electricity bills, and gas bills, which are characterized by slow recharge and slow payment. Fraudsters publish so-called preferential recharge services such as "phone bill recharge", "fuel card recharge" and "electricity bill recharge" through various channels to attract users to buy. After someone buys it, the fraudsters usually promise to "arrive in the account within a week", and the money is used for the crime of wire fraud within the buffer time. At the same time, the fraudsters trick the victim into recharging the mobile phone account of the user who purchased the recharge service to complete the "laundering" of the fraudulent money.
Although such "tool people" who buy "recharge services" cheaply do not have a "prison sentence", they may face the consequences of having their mobile phone numbers banned during the investigation. Therefore, the general public is requested to raise their awareness of prevention and their ability to distinguish, be vigilant against new methods of fraud, and not to be a "tool man" for wire fraud.
Source: Zhejiang Public Security
Editor: Xiaohu