NANJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- "Overseas high-paid workers"? Beware of falling into the trap of scammers!
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhu Guoliang and Shen Rufa
With the dream of getting rich overnight, he went to Dubai to pan for gold, but finally ended up in the desert "fraud park" and embarked on the "road of no return" of fraud...... Not long ago, the Nanjing Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Zone People's Court publicly pronounced a verdict in the first instance of an extraordinarily large cross-border telecommunications network fraud case, and 16 defendants were sentenced.
How did the "gold rush road" of going abroad turn into a "point of no return" for fraud? This reporter interviewed the case-handling personnel and several defendants.
Members of the public were defrauded of $5.8 million and were involved in a major cross-border wire fraud case
"I was scammed out of $5.8 million online. "In February 2022, Zhou, a citizen of Nanjing, came to the Development Zone Police Station of the Jiangning Branch of the Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau to report the case.
Zhou is a divorced "mother" who has no job and has been taking care of her children at home. In February 2022, she sold a property she had obtained during the divorce, paid off the loan, and deposited the remaining more than 5 million yuan in the bank.
Soon, she saw a part-time job message on an online platform, saying that if she followed some WeChat public accounts, she would get cashback. She felt that things were simple and risk-free, so she left her name and phone number. The next day, she was pulled into a WeChat group, and thus fell into the trap of scammers step by step, and was finally defrauded of 5.8 million yuan.
The police investigation found that this fraud gang was hiding in Dubai, and its fraud method was a typical "swiping" fraud, that is, first giving some simple tasks and rewarding them, and then inducing them to download App investment rebates, and then carry out the scam on the grounds of operational errors and freezing of funds.
Cheng Hua, deputy procurator general of the People's Procuratorate of Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Zone, said that the police investigation found that from September 2021 to June 2022, a total of 189 victims were defrauded of more than 2,700 yuan.
"Most of these victims were unemployed or unstable women in their 40s, who wanted to earn money by working part-time, but fell for the scam. Cheng Hua said.
Some members of the fraud gang returned to China after passport expiration, and the Jiangning Branch of the Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau carried out a centralized arrest in August 2022, and 16 criminal suspects were arrested and handed over to the procuratorate for prosecution.
The scene of the court hearing. (Photo courtesy of Nanjing Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Zone People's Court)
went to Dubai to "pan for gold" but embarked on the "road of no return" of fraud
The reporter recently interviewed the prosecutor handling the case, and the video connected three defendants, including Huang, Xu, and Dai.
The three people went abroad on a surprisingly similar path, they were all young people in their 20s, with low educational qualifications, and none of them had jobs before going abroad. Dai is from Shandong and wants to go to Dubai with his friends to open a barbecue restaurant; Xu is from Hunan and wants to go to Dubai to work; and Huang is tempted by a high salary on a job search website, saying that he is looking for a typist with a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan. The three people are arranged by others, first take a car to Shenzhen, and then fly from Shenzhen or Hong Kong to Dubai, and someone pays for the accommodation and travel expenses all the way. Those who took them out were fellow villagers, classmates, netizens, etc.
Before going abroad, the bustling city scene of Dubai on the Internet filled them with infinite reverie. However, when they arrived at their destination, they were taken to an "industrial park" far from the city, where there were about 20 high-rise buildings with more than 10 to 20 floors, and there were multiple companies on each floor, most of which were fraudulent companies.
There are various facilities such as restaurants and KTVs in the park. The three told reporters that they had the opportunity to escape, but because their passports were confiscated, and they needed to pay for the airfare, food and lodging expenses in the early stage when they left, otherwise they might be beaten if they were caught. They all chose to stay and commit the scam.
Huang and Dai were both directly sent to the fraud company, and Huang also became the team leader of the fraud company. Dai was "grinding foreign workers" during the fraud, and was discovered by the fraudulent company, and was "expelled" to return to China after being beaten and paying 90,000 yuan in compensation. Xu was first sent to a gambling company, and then "resold" to a fraudulent company for 40,000 yuan - he was the specific trader who defrauded Nanjing's "Bao Ma" Zhou.
"If you try to run away secretly, the company will issue a bounty announcement, and there will be a 'bounty hunter' to catch it, and if you catch it, you will be beaten and locked up in a small black house. Xu said that before he returned to China, he also paid compensation.
The reporter learned from the interview that these fraudsters stayed in Dubai for a few months to more than a year, except for a few people who were "fired" from the company, most of them "resigned" and returned to China after the expiration of their passports, and were caught by the police.
The fraud syndicate is well-organized and divides the spoils layer by layer
According to the prosecutor handling the case, the "industrial park" mentioned by the defendant is actually a "fraud park". The fraud group is tightly organized, and every fraudulent money must be divided according to the corresponding proportion.
Huang and Xu said that the fraud company was established in 2021, and there is one behind-the-scenes boss at the top, that is, the actual controller, as well as three partnership shareholders and one specific person in charge. Most of these behind-the-scenes bosses and shareholders are Chinese. The company consists of "WeChat Department", "Resources Department", "Finance Department", "Bag Group", "Handle Team", "Third-party APP" and so on. The front-line fraudsters at the bottom are divided into 3 groups, and the people in the group are paired in pairs, one is a "mentor" and the other is a "speculation group".
"Scams mainly take advantage of the psychology of customers who are greedy for small and cheap. After being pulled into the WeChat group, about 2 out of 50 people were deceived. Huang said, "There are 50 people in a WeChat group, including 40 customers and 10 'speculation groups'." Many of the victims don't have any work, so the 'hype group' chats with them, mingles with the victims, and then puts them into it step by step. ”
The internal management of the fraud company is strict, and the front-line fraudsters have to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., clock in and out of work, and fine them for arriving late and leaving early. The company arranges accommodation and distributes mobile phones.
The income of the fraudsters is closely related to the proceeds of the fraud. According to Huang, the basic salary of the team leader is 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan a month, and the basic salary of team members starts from 8,000 yuan, and there are different proportions of commissions. "The amount of my fraud was six or seven million yuan, and I personally took a total of nearly 400,000 yuan. Xu explained, "Zhou's order is 5.8 million yuan, and I personally only got more than 20 yuan." The 'resource department' that provides bank cards and mobile phone numbers has the highest share, reaching 30% to 50%. ”
The 16 defendants arrested so far in the case were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from four to 12 years in the first instance, and more than 200 yuan of fraudulent proceeds were recovered. They are mainly front-line fraudsters, upstream shareholders, behind-the-scenes bosses and a group of executives, who are still hiding abroad. These defendants failed to "pan for gold" and were imprisoned, and they had to pay back the victims' economic losses. The relevant departments of Jiangning regard the recovery of stolen goods and losses as an important task, and are doing their best to recover the economic losses of the deceived people.
"It seems to be a simple rebate fraud, but there are still many people who are deeply involved in it. The prosecutor reminded that the fraudsters took advantage of the victim's desire to get rich quick and the joy of small profits to commit fraud. The broad masses of the people must enhance their awareness and ability to guard against deception, and keep in mind that "there is no free lunch in the world."
The judicial department reminds that when going abroad to work, you must choose a regular labor channel to go abroad to understand the information, go through the procedures, keep your eyes open, don't be lucky, and don't believe in the "pie in the sky" thing, so as not to fall into the abyss of breaking the law and committing crimes.