The HPV vaccine is mainly used to prevent the occurrence of cervical cancer, and due to the high demand, sometimes the short-term supply is insufficient, and it is necessary to make an appointment for vaccination. However, there are criminals who have targeted those seeking ways to make appointments, and they have concocted a scam with a Trojan horse and an appointment SMS.
The woman clicks on the vaccine appointment link
The customer service asks for payment to lock the place
Ms. Wu, a citizen of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, received a text message purportedly from a vaccine appointment platform, and she did not suspect it because she had indeed made an appointment for vaccination on the platform before.
Ms. Wu said that at that time, she had already completed the vaccination through other channels, but she felt that the opportunity was rare, so she thought of her sister. "At that time, there was often a shortage of vaccines, and my sister wanted to get vaccinated too, so I wanted to give her a place. ”
Ms. Wu's sister clicked on the website link in the text message and jumped to a so-called vaccine appointment platform. After communicating with the customer service about the process of making an appointment for vaccination and filling in the relevant personal information, the other party sent her a personal bank account and told her that she could successfully lock in the quota by paying 5,800 yuan.
Soon, Ms. Wu's sister paid as requested, but strangely, she received a reply from the customer service: "The payment is invalid due to the wrong remarks information." At this point, she was a little suspicious, so she didn't continue to transfer money.
After that, she searched and called the official consultation number of a reservation platform, and the reply was: "They will not send text messages with website links, and they will not ask customers to transfer money to their personal bank accounts to pay fees." At this time, the sisters realized that they might have encountered a highly simulated fraudulent website, so they hurriedly reported the case.
Use Trojan viruses to obtain customer information
Fraud gangs make copycat websites
The investigators investigated and found that behind these traps was a fraud gang headed by Liang and Wang. After fully understanding the market situation, the two jointly funded the purchase of a Trojan horse program on the Internet black and gray industry platform, and Liang sent the Trojan program to the customer service of the regular appointment website.
In order to be able to implement precise fraud, Liang and Wang made a detailed division of labor:
- Liang used the Trojan virus to obtain customer information from the customer service computer, including the name, contact number, ID number, vaccine type, payment amount, and order number of the customer who made an appointment.
- Wang was responsible for renting virtual hosting servers, making copycat websites, and contacting money launderers to provide bank cards for collecting fraudulent payments.
According to the investigators, in a few months, the suspect obtained more than 290,000 HPV vaccine appointment order information, customer service chat books and accounts of some bulk SMS platforms nationwide.
Pretending to be the platform's customer service, inducing the victim to transfer money multiple times
55 victims were defrauded of more than 600,000 yuan
The investigators said that Liang and Wang sent fraudulent text messages to the victims through the SMS platform with successful appointments, and tricked the victims into clicking on the phishing website link in the fraudulent text messages. Subsequently, the co-defendants hired by them will pretend to be the customer service of the platform, and induce the victim to transfer money multiple times by adjusting the price, placing a new order to enjoy the discount, and making a payment error and needing to pay again.
Because they can report accurate information about customers, it is difficult for victims to distinguish the real from the fake in the first place. In this case, a total of 55 victims were deceived and defrauded of more than 600,000 yuan.
In December 2023, Liang and Wang were sentenced to 12 years in prison and 11 years and 9 months in prison respectively for committing fraud and infringing on citizens' personal information, and were also fined various amounts. In addition, a number of co-defendants who impersonated customer service and provided bank cards for "money laundering" have been dealt with separately and the case is under further trial.
Source: CCTV News