In May 2023, on the bustling streets of Shanghai, a young woman's alarm sounded in the Jiangsu Road police station. Xiao Xu, who is also an online blogger, has an expression of disbelief and anger on her face, holding her mobile phone tightly in her hand, and the screen of her mobile phone shows a social account called "Ordinary Women's Cultivation Guide".
Xiao Xu recalls that she was initially attracted to the content posted by the other party about wealth and personal growth. Not only does the emotional blogger share his so-called secrets to success, but he also constantly posts articles about psychological comfort, which makes people feel as if they have found spiritual support. Xiao Xu gradually developed a deep trust in her and became a die-hard fan.
Over time, the blogger began to recommend some fortune-telling and forwarding services, and specifically recommended a WeChat account called "Canglan Astrology", claiming that there were more professional services there. Xiao Xu, driven by his extreme trust in this blogger, began to try and pay consulting fees frequently. Within a year, she paid as much as 130,000 yuan, most of which was borrowed online.
Just as Xiao Xu was immersed in this psychological comfort brought by the astrological service, an explosive news broke her peace. It turned out that the blogger's "boyfriend" suddenly issued a statement in which he publicly denied the relationship with the female blogger and pointed out that he had never met the person. This sudden truth, like a thunderbolt from the sky, made Xiao Xu completely wake up.
Feeling deeply furious, Xiao Xu was deceived, and she immediately went to the police station to call the police. After the case was opened, the police began an investigation. Through further investigation, the police not only found that the female blogger had forged her own personality, but also found that she played multiple roles, including the so-called fortune teller, and what is even more outrageous is that this situation is not an isolated case.
Police soon received more reports of this. Some victims spontaneously formed a victim group chat online to discuss the emotional blogger's fraudulent behavior. The number of people in the group quickly increased to hundreds of people, some of whom were cheated of thousands of yuan, and some even as high as hundreds of thousands of yuan.
After further investigation, the police found that almost all of these victims were converted from loyal fans of the account "Punu Cultivation Guide". Two of the victims pointed out that the emotional blogger not only cheated on her personal account, but also posted all kinds of tempting information through WeChat, QQ and other social platforms to trick netizens who trusted her.
As the case deepens, more insider stories are unearthed. It turned out that the female blogger used the successful image she created on social media to privately create multiple fake identities for fortune telling and psychological counseling, and interacted with fans through different accounts, but she was actually operating alone behind the scenes.
Whenever a fan asks for help for emotional, work, etc., she will provide so-called professional advice or mysterious astrology services at a high cost. The climax of all this came after her so-called boyfriend came forward to reveal the truth. The man was really just an ordinary person who didn't know the female blogger, and his photo and identity were used without permission to weave fake romance stories to boost her credibility.
The police tracked down the true identity of the female blogger through technical means, an ordinary woman who had tried many failed attempts to start a business. The illusion of her success on the web contrasts sharply with her real-life failures. Her fraud involved not only individuals, but also multiple commercial fraud cases, involving huge sums of money.
The case was eventually heard in court, and the female blogger was sentenced to prison for fraud and all her social media accounts were permanently banned. The trial of this case is not only a punishment for her personally, but also a cautionary tale to the entire social network environment.
Although Xiao Xu and the other victims suffered a great psychological and economic blow because of this incident, they also received a certain degree of psychological comfort through the exposure and handling of this incident. So have you ever participated in similar fortune telling online?