At present, the "card breaking operation" carried out by the public security organs has reduced the number of fraudsters transferring stolen funds through personal bank cards, but there have been new trends such as cross-border money laundering through virtual currency.
Virtual currencies facilitate the transfer of stolen money across borders
In October 2021, the public security organs of Nan'an City, Fujian Province, cracked a case of "pig killing plate" fraud, and the criminal gang used dating software to attract users to the virtual investment platform, and then completed cross-border settlement through TETAcoin money laundering, converted into RMB, and finally completed the fraud.
Dai Duoshu, commander of the criminal investigation brigade of the Nan'an Municipal Public Security Bureau, introduced that Tether coin is a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar, which is widely used abroad and is "favored" by fraud gangs.
"At present, more than 80% of telecommunications network fraud has the characteristics of cross-border flow, and virtual currency facilitates the cross-border transfer of stolen funds by fraud gangs." Qiu Xin, deputy head of the criminal investigation detachment of the Quanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, said.
Chen Jiezhong, director of the Anti-Fraud Center of the Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, said that on the one hand, virtual currency is embodied in a string of characters and numbers, which can be sent point-to-point, with the characteristics of anonymity, difficult tracking, and convenient transactions; on the other hand, although the mainland explicitly prohibits the issuance of virtual currency financing and exchange activities, due to the acquiescence of other countries and regions to the circulation of virtual currency, virtual currency and global currency can be freely converted, facilitating cross-border laundering of funds and becoming a money laundering tool.
Wen Weihuang, deputy director of the Nan'an Municipal Public Security Bureau, introduced that the use of virtual currency money laundering is divided into three stages, first of all, criminals buy virtual currency on the overseas virtual currency trading platform, inject illegal funds into the "cleaning" channel, and then use the anonymity of virtual currency to conduct multiple transactions, and finally the "laundered" virtual currency is realized in overseas exchanges, underground money banks or private transactions, and the money laundering operation can be completed.
In recent years, a number of virtual currency money laundering cases have been cracked in China, and the number of cases has shown an increasing trend. According to information released by the Ministry of Public Security, in 2021, public security organs across the country cracked 259 cases of virtual currency money laundering, and the value of virtual currency was seized for more than 11 billion yuan.
There are loopholes in the security supervision of third-party payment platforms
Public security police in many places said that some third-party payment platforms still have loopholes in the implementation of security supervision, and the mechanism for rapid inquiry and freezing of funds involved in the case has not been established, and it has also bred "running points" money laundering chaos.
The so-called "running points" is a money laundering model that has emerged in recent years, which refers to the use of part-time crowdsourcing to absorb a large number of people to rent out their third-party payment platform accounts for fraud.
Wang Weiming, captain of a large team of criminal investigation detachments of the Quanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, introduced that some fraud gangs target third-party payment platforms, hire a large number of unemployed young people, use the two-dimensional code of the third-party payment platform to "run points", and turn them into zero to carry out stolen funds. The reporter contacted a customer service platform called "Everyone Earns", and the other party said that the mobile phone only needs to download a few software to "run points".
In May 2021, in a fraud case in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, the victim's defrauded 6.1 million yuan of stolen money was transferred to three bank cards and immediately diverted to more than 100 bank accounts and third-party payment platforms. "Some third-party payment platforms have not established a mechanism for quick news inquiry and freezing, and the feedback is slow, and it is often too late to freeze payments." Wang Weiming said that the police eventually froze more than 100 bank cards and accounts, but only more than 900,000 yuan could be clearly sourced.
Grassroots police said that some small and medium-sized third-party payment institutions have been more seriously involved due to management failures. In January this year, the police in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, received a "pig killing plate" fraud alarm, the victim was defrauded of more than 1 million yuan was transferred to a number of bank cards and third-party accounts, of which "Yunnan Benyuan Payment" and other payment institutions involved in the case were not shared due to resources, the funds were difficult to inquire.
The police told the reporter that some small and medium-sized third-party payment platforms and banks are often the "green channel" for fraud and money laundering due to poor supervision.
"A small number of third-party payment platforms have not implemented their responsibilities in fulfilling their security supervision obligations and coordinating to combat and prevent telecommunications network fraud crimes, especially in assisting public security organs to quickly inquire and freeze the funds involved in the case. To find out where the funds flow, the public security organs must go to the city where the third-party payment platform is located, accompanied by the local public security organs, to inquire and freeze the accounts involved in the case, but the fraudsters hit the keyboard and transferred the funds within a few minutes. Li Dongqiang, head of the criminal investigation brigade of the Quanzhou Anxi County Public Security Bureau, said.
Prevent money laundering risks and control the "flow of funds" involved in fraud
In response to the new trend of "capital flow" of telecommunications network fraud, public security organs in various localities have intensified their crackdown on money laundering using virtual currencies, seizing and seizing a large number of virtual currencies involved in the case.
In September 2021, 10 ministries and commissions, including the Chinese Bank, issued a notice to strictly prohibit and ban virtual currency-related businesses in accordance with the law. Rao Luming, a police officer at the Fuzhou Anti-Fraud Center, said that after the introduction of the new regulations, money laundering has shifted to more hidden private transactions, causing certain difficulties for the police to inquire and freeze.
Public security police in many places proposed that while banning on-exchange transactions, it is necessary to increase the crackdown on over-the-counter private transactions, especially to prohibit the realization of virtual currencies in the territory and continuously compress their living space. Some police officers suggested that more specific virtual currency regulatory regulations should be introduced in due course.
Using the data support of the Internet platform, banks and third-party payment platforms have established a more accurate risk control system to effectively identify and control the accounts involved in the case. Chen Jiezhong said that the Internet platform has a large number of user funds and communication data, and it is recommended to rely on the platform data to establish an analysis model and timely find the signs of risk.
"Banks can use big data means to more accurately identify fraudulent accounts, such as victims transferring money to unfamiliar accounts through online banks, and the other party's online banking IP address is displayed as overseas, these situations where fraud is more likely, can implement restrictive transaction measures such as delayed arrival to the account to recover the victim's losses." Huang Qingbiao, deputy head of the criminal investigation brigade of the Fengze Branch of the Quanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, said.
In addition, it is also necessary to strengthen the constraints and supervision of third-party payment platforms, guide each platform to establish a process-based and dynamic pre-event supervision system, form data sharing with public security departments, and increase punishment through fines and cancellation of licenses for some third-party payment platforms with small market share and frequent cases.
Source: Half Moon Talk