Nowadays, many children often use their parents' mobile phones to play games and watch videos. However, some scammers take advantage of this phenomenon and target young players through online game social platforms, and carry out scams in the name of "playing games in teams" and "giving away limited skins for free".
At the beginning of this year, the Public Security Bureau of Ningguo City, Anhui Province, received a police report that the informant, Duo Duo, was only 10 years old and came to report the case accompanied by his parents. The child said that he was cheated of more than 10,000 yuan when he was playing games online.
How was she deceived at the age of 10?
The "Big Sister" player takes the initiative to apply for a friend with a 10-year-old girl
According to Duoduo and her parents, Duoduo used her grandmother's mobile phone number to register an account and play a game called "Egg Boy Party". At the same time, she often interacts with other players in the egg boy section of a social software platform "TT Voice".
One day, a gamer who called himself "Big Sister" asked to add her as a friend in "TT Voice", and said, "If you play games with me, you will get a game skin".
Match the "sisters" and send game gear as bait
This strange "sister" and Duoduo are called "sisters", and they also said that they would help apply for game skins, which made Duoduo feel very kind.
However, soon, the other party suddenly sent a message saying that because of the "abnormal risk" of Duoduo's game account, the game account of "sister" was officially blocked. The game account of "Sister" has been recharged with a lot of skins, and if you don't help unblock it, you will suffer a lot of losses.
Although this reason is full of loopholes in the eyes of adults, it has a great influence on the young Duoduo.
falsely claimed that the account was blocked and intimidated children to transfer 10,000 yuan
"Sister" asked Duoduo to send red envelopes through Alipay, claiming that the account could be unblocked by this so-called "charging water" method. At first, Duoduo didn't respond, but the other party pressed forward step by step, making Duoduo unable to parry.
According to the investigators, the scammers will also use intimidation behaviors in the process of inducing children to transfer money, such as "If you don't help unblock the account, I will go to the police to arrest you or arrest your parents", which made the children timid.
Duoduo's father: Duoduo took her grandmother's mobile phone in another room that night, and got it from 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock in the evening. Her grandmother was busy with work during the day, and people were more tired at night, so she didn't care about her.
Under the two-hour inducement of "sister", Duoduo's psychological defense gradually collapsed. She sent multiple cash red envelopes according to the other party's request, and also said her grandmother's identity information, bank card number and other information.
The suspect used Grandma Duoduo's mobile phone number to register a third-party payment software and bind her bank card, and then asked Duoduo to send a mobile phone verification code information, and successively transferred more than 10,000 yuan in the card. Duoduo's father realized that it was a fraud after seeing the amount of expenditure, so he called the police.
Take control of the child's psychology
The deception is full of loopholes, but it still succeeds
The scammer's words can't help but scrutinize, but they grasp the child's "lack of social experience", "don't want the family to know", "worry about causing trouble to the parents" and other psychology, while threatening and persuading, step by step guide the child to send red envelopes to transfer money and provide parents' identity information.
After receiving the report, the local multi-department implemented linkage and used Duoduo's encounter as a breakthrough to investigate similar cases. The police investigation found that this gang involving six criminal suspects had committed 13 crimes, involving 10 provinces and cities. Although this scam is simple, this gang is very cunning in targeting young players.
The suspects in the case usually use virtual identities and do not have direct contact with the victims, which also makes it difficult to solve the case. In order to lock down this criminal gang, the police conducted a thorough investigation for several months, and finally found through hundreds of accounts that there were account funds to the accounts of the suspect's relatives and friends, so as to determine the identity of the suspect.
Create a "sister" character to facilitate the cliché
The police revealed the suspect's methods of deception
All six suspects were arrested and confessed to the crime. How does this gang pick minors to set traps? And how to extract key information from the victim's mouth?
According to the confession of the suspect in this case, they usually use various social platforms to cast a wide net, using "playing games together" and "giving game skins" as bait, and create a friendly "intimate sister" character through "men dressing up as women", which is convenient to talk to young players, and children around the age of 10-13 are their preferred targets for deception.
Criminal suspect Li confessed that even if the victim asked for voice or video, they had a way to "break the siege".
Suspect Li: If she talked to me on the phone, before chatting, I would say that I was a little busy now, and asked my boyfriend to tell you, and she agreed, and then I went to chat and talk as a boy.
The game is set up in minor mode, and the child plays with the parent's mobile phone
According to the relevant national regulations, the "Egg Boy Party" game has taken special protection measures for minors under the age of 14, and underage players can only log in to the game from 20 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays. And children like Duoduo, who are only 10 years old, in order to play games by themselves, some borrow their parents' mobile phones and ID cards to register and log in to the game.
In the process of cheating, constantly put pressure on the child to break down the psychological defense
The suspects of this criminal gang are aware that many children's game accounts are registered and logged in with parental information, so once they have gained the initial trust of the children, they will let the victim find the golden red envelope and provide the parents' mobile phone numbers and bank cards on the grounds of "abnormal game accounts are blocked" to cooperate with the so-called "charging water".
Throughout the deception process, the suspect will continue to put pressure on the children and break down their psychological defenses step by step, such as "Can you cooperate with the lift?" "This matter is serious, not kidding you" and so on.
Withdraw the bank card information and transfer the funds through the mobile phone verification code
The police handling the case said that this series of "tricks" of the liars is also to let the deceived minors step by step out of the supervision and protection of their parents. After that, using the parents' mobile phone number, bank card and other information taken from the victim's mouth, the gang members can register third-party payment software and bind the corresponding bank card, and transfer the funds in the card through the mobile phone verification code information.
The police reminded that children in the growth stage are still immature, and parents should pay more attention to their daily dynamics, try to avoid children playing games on mobile phones without supervision, and not irresponsibly directly provide parents' mobile phones and ID numbers to children to register and log in to the game.
Source: CCTV News