The price of gold is constantly changing, and so are scams. Not long ago, the police in Hangzhou, Zhejiang and Wenzhou cracked a series of cases of using gold to defraud and launder money. So, how have fraudsters upgraded their tricks? How can we guard against these scams?
What is the mystery behind a large gold transaction?
Mr. Ma, who lives in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, spent a huge amount of money to buy gold, and even sold his house at a loss. When the police went to him and asked him why he bought gold, he said that it was left to his family, but when he asked his daughter, he didn't know anything about it, so what did the old man buy gold for?
In late August this year, the Hangzhou police received a fraud warning that Mr. Ma, an elderly man in his 80s, had purchased a large amount of gold at a bank branch, an unusual behavior that attracted the attention of the police.
Mr. Ma told the police that he had sold his house to collect more than 2 million yuan. The old man also said that he sold his house not only to buy gold, but also to change his wife's house with an elevator. Speaking of which, Mr. Ma's wife also showed the police the wound of her broken leg, saying that it was inconvenient for her to climb the stairs.
Huang Weiming, police officer of Kaixuan Police Station, Shangcheng District Bureau, Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: We asked him if your house was sold, did you buy your new house? (The victim said) No, I didn't buy it.
Selling a house and buying gold are all large capital flows in the family, but Mr. Ma and his wife did not discuss it with their children, so they gave the big thing by themselves, which also made the police at the scene a little puzzled. Then the police contacted the old man's daughter and asked her to go home to find out the real reason for her father's sale.
Huang Weiming, police officer of Kaixuan Police Station, Shangcheng District Bureau, Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: My daughter was very surprised, she didn't know how to sell the house at all, and she bought 5 kilograms of gold.
However, in the face of his relatives, Mr. Ma still insisted on his previous statement. Based on years of experience in handling cases, the police judged that the current fraud against the elderly is basically concentrated in two types: investment and financial fraud and impersonation of the public procuratorate, and Mr. Ma's mobile phone has less investment-related content, so the police suspect that he may have encountered fraud impersonating the public procuratorate.
Yu En, police officer of the Anti-Fraud Center of the Shangcheng District Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: Our police will never let you prove your innocence, let alone let you transfer the money to the corresponding so-called safe account.
The elderly, gold, selling houses, investment, and children do not know, these cases are combined with keywords, and the police analyze that the elderly are likely to have suffered fraud, so in the face of the uncooperative Mr. Ma, what should the police do next?
Huang Weiming, police officer of Kaixuan Police Station, Shangcheng District Bureau, Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: Let me ask the old man, where is your voucher to buy gold? He said he hadn't taken it out at the bank.
For the sake of safety, the police asked the old man to hand over the gold withdrawal voucher to his daughter for safekeeping, and temporarily took protective measures to stop payment in the account of the old couple.
Huang Weiming, police officer of the Kaixuan Police Station of the Shangcheng District Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: We made it clear to his daughter that you must not let him take out the gold.
Subsequently, the police added the old man's daughter's WeChat, and after going downstairs, he repeatedly told her that the old man's situation was very suspicious, and asked her to continue to dissuade her at home, and pay attention to whether the old man had other mobile phones.
Yu En, police officer of the Anti-Fraud Center of the Shangcheng District Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: We have already had a case in the early stage where the general scammer commits telecommunication network fraud on the elderly, and will ask him to buy a new mobile phone and apply for a new mobile phone card.
Huang Weiming, police officer of the Kaixuan Police Station of the Shangcheng District Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: I learned afterwards that he did have a mobile phone hidden in the cabinet.
According to Mr. Ma, this is not the first time he has bought large sums of gold, and he said it all started when he received a phone call at the end of June from a person claiming to be a "staff member of the Cyberspace Administration of China" who said that he might be involved in some illegal actions and that the police from the Dongcheng branch in Beijing would contact him.
Yu En, police officer of the Anti-Fraud Center of the Shangcheng District Branch of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: Later, the suspect claimed to be a police officer from the Beijing Dongcheng Branch and contacted Mr. Ma, saying that Mr. Ma was involved in a fraud case, and someone used a bank card opened in Mr. Ma's name to defraud, and the fraud amount was as high as more than 3 million yuan.
Victim Mr. Ma: He said that you were involved in the case of 3.61 million yuan, and you were suspected of defrauding 17 people.
The other party also showed Mr. Ma's ID card information and photo, claiming that the bank card was handled through someone else when he was not in Beijing. Now Mr. Ma is suspected of this fraud case, and there are more than 200 bank cards in his name, and the fraud amount is in Mr. Ma's name. The other party said that he wanted Mr. Ma to cooperate with the investigation and said that his account needed to be frozen. The so-called public prosecutor on the other end of the phone hopes that Mr. Ma will immediately go to Beijing to make a record for investigation and get rid of the suspicion of being involved in the case, but there is another way to prove his innocence.
Yu En, police officer of the Anti-Fraud Center of the Shangcheng District Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: The scammer claimed that Mr. Ma could prove his innocence by transferring the funds to their margin account. He is very eager to prove his innocence, because he really thinks the other party is a real policeman.
Mr. Ma told his wife about his possible suspicion of fraud, and she was also very nervous, so he asked Mr. Ma to follow the scammer's prompt to buy gold and give it to a stranger as a so-called security deposit, as a way to prove his innocence.
Victim Mr. Ma: The first time we bought about a kilogram of gold, it cost 560,000 yuan. After that, we gave all the deposits of the two of them, as well as the gold, to the man in the black shirt and the black clothes. He asked us to salute, and we did, and then gave him our possessions.
A few days after buying gold for the first time, the fraud suspect instigated Mr. Ma to borrow 870,000 yuan. After that, the old couple was told to exchange the money for gold, a total of 1.5 kilograms, as a deposit. They acted as instructed and handed over the gold to the designated people.
Yu En, police officer of the Anti-Fraud Center of the Shangcheng District Bureau of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: After the purchase, it was the same as the first time, and a suspect sent Ma Tsai to pick up the gold.
After Mr. Ma handed over the gold to the fraud gang, the other party did give feedback, saying that he had already obtained it. But later, the other party contacted Mr. Ma again and said that further operations were needed. In the process, the other party provided some photos and information, including the alleged people involved in the case and related evidence, which made Mr. Ma feel very scared and worried.
The other party sent him his ID card and a photo, and he believed it (the scammer). Because the older generation thinks that the only people who can get hold of my name and ID card, including my photo, are the public security organs.
This time, the scammer said that because the evidence was still under review, he asked Mr. Ma to buy gold for the third time to prove his innocence, and at this time Mr. Ma's family had no available funds, so the other party asked him to sell the house and then use the money from the sale of the house to buy gold. However, Mr. Ma raised the problem that if he sold the house, he and his wife would have nowhere to go, and the scammer said that this was very easy to solve.
Victim Mr. Ma: He said that if the house is sold, don't worry, we will ensure that the house will still be there after it is sold, so that I believe that the house can be taken back, I believe that the house can be returned, and if the house can be taken back, then I will sell it.
Believing the scammer's promise that the house could be redeemed, Mr. Ma sold the house at a price of more than 900,000 yuan below the market price.
After investigation, the police restored the entire fraud process. On June 28, the scammer called the victim Mr. Ma for the first time. On July 3, Mr. Ma went to the bank to buy 560,000 yuan of gold as requested by the scammers. On July 11, the scammer contacted the old man again and asked him to buy 870,000 yuan of gold on the pretext of paying a deposit. On August 5, Mr. Ma bought 2.86 million yuan of gold for the third time, and then when he went to the bank to get the gold, the bank staff found an abnormality and provided clues to the Hangzhou police. The police came to dissuade them, and with the active cooperation of Mr. Ma's family, they successfully intercepted the 2.86 million yuan of gold that was about to be handed over to the scammer.
Yao Limin, head of the anti-fraud work team of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: At present, the incidence of telecommunication network fraud cases is high, and the damage is large, especially the rapid change in the means of committing crimes, which requires us to constantly follow up on preventive measures. At present, victims are tricked into buying gold and delivering it by express delivery or online car-hailing to their doors, which has become an important way for criminal money laundering, which requires strong support from all sectors of society, including banks, and also requires the broad masses of the people to pay serious attention to anti-fraud propaganda and further enhance their awareness of fraud prevention and involvement.
In addition to focusing on the elderly group who are easily deceived, the scammers also set their sights on the marriage and love market, and Ms. Chen from Wenzhou fell for it.
In June this year, Ms. Chen, 55, met Wang, who claimed to be an internal employee of a securities company and had an inside story of the stock market, online. The relationship between the two quickly warmed up and a romantic relationship was established.
After that, Wang asked Ms. Chen to operate the account on behalf of her on the grounds of work, and promised a good return. At first, Ms. Chen was wary, but Wang's gentleness and professional analysis gradually won her trust. gradually let down his guard, and began to be moved by this seemingly reliable "boyfriend", and promised to help him invest and manage money online.
Xu Yiqiang, police officer of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Pingyang County Public Security Bureau of the Wenzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: On July 17, the municipal bureau pushed a clue of early warning and dissuasion, saying that there was a Ms. Chen in our jurisdiction whose funds were at risk and might be defrauded, and then we immediately contacted Ms. Chen on the spot, but Ms. Chen has not cooperated with our dissuasion work and has always insisted that she has not been deceived.
The police investigation found that on July 17, Ms. Chen transferred 20,000 yuan to Wang for the first time; In the following days, she transferred 100,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan respectively under the guidance of Wang, and in just a few days, Ms. Chen transferred a total of 170,000 yuan to the account designated by Wang in three times.
Chen Chenghuang, Deputy Captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Pingyang County Public Security Bureau of the Wenzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: It was not until July 23 that Ms. Chen returned to our jurisdiction, and we also did the work of door-to-door dissuasion, but she has also been avoiding our dissuasion. It wasn't until July 25, with the cooperation of her daughter, that we actually met Ms. Chen in person, and brought her to the unit to learn more about the situation.
Ms. Chen told the police that through Wang's inside information, the balance in her own investment account was indeed rising, but Wang said that if she wanted to withdraw money, she had to increase her investment.
Xu Yiqiang, police officer of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Pingyang County Public Security Bureau of the Wenzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: The suspects wanted to evade the investigation of the public security organs, because they found that if the funds were through the bank account, they were likely to be investigated and prosecuted by the public security organs, so they wanted to let Ms. Chen buy the gold and then send it to other places.
On July 24, Ms. Chen bought 700 grams of gold, with a total value of up to 400,000 yuan, and sent them to Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province. Just one day later, she bought another 520 grams of gold, worth nearly 300,000 yuan, and sent it by post.
Xu Yiqiang, police officer of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Pingyang County Public Security Bureau of the Wenzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: After understanding the situation, according to the linkage mechanism between us and the relevant aspects of the Postal Administration, the relevant express delivery was tracked, and finally in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province and Longgang City, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, the two express delivery were intercepted, with a stop loss of more than 70 yuan.
In this case, Ms. Chen was confused by Wang's carefully packaged identity as a "securities company executive" and fell into this scam step by step. It wasn't until the police intervened that it dawned on her.
Chen Zhiyin, deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Wenzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau: In order to evade the crackdown of the public security organs, the criminals induced our victims to buy a large amount of physical gold, and then obtained illegal benefits by mail.
From online chatting to offline money laundering, the suspects took advantage of the victims' psychological weaknesses and carefully weaved a web of lies. Scams are constantly evolving, and prevention measures are constantly evolving.
Wang Huojian, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department: After these cases occurred, our province also immediately linked up with relevant merchants, banks, and delivery companies to carry out joint prevention and control to prevent similar gold money laundering fraud.
Source: Kunming Anti-Telecom Network Fraud Center, CCTV News
Editor: Li Tong
Editor: Li Jing
Final review: Zhao Wen