【Text/Observer Network Columnist Zuo Wei】
Recently, police officer Chen Guoping publicized anti-fraud knowledge through the short video platform and the anchor randomly connected to the wheat PK, which instantly spread throughout the network. Hundreds of millions of people participated in the topic, and "Did you download the National Anti-Fraud Center APP?" "It has become a hot Internet term.
On September 4, the number of downloads of the App of the National Anti-Fraud Center exceeded 200 million times. More and more police and civilians are participating in the anti-fraud propaganda, as Officer Chen said on the live broadcast: "Regardless of profession, regardless of police type, the whole people are anti-fraud, and there is no fraud in the world." ”
Watching "Green Snake Robbery" on station B, the bullet screen floated over the "download national anti-fraud app".
"I, Qin Shi Huang, hit the money"
In October 2020, the Pingdingshan Public Security Bureau cracked a "national asset thawing" fraud case. The scammers pretended to be descendants of the royal family, and in the name of protecting the "huge inheritance" of the displaced people, they used "high investment and high returns" as bait to defraud money.
The methods of such fraud cases are not new, because of their absurdity, they have even spawned many online passages such as "I, Qin Shi Huang, playing money". But there are still countless people who have been deceived.
From February to August 2019, the Ministry of Public Security launched a six-month special operation to rectify the "national asset thawing" fraud case, and in half a year, the national public security organs smashed 284 related fraud criminal gangs, arrested 3,589 criminal suspects, and frozen and seized 623 million yuan of funds involved in the case.
Such fraud cases, in the name of patriotism, mostly claim to be state secret projects. It seems absurd and single-handed, but it is well-organized, has a clear division of labor, and directly or indirectly develops thousands to millions of members, which is a mixed form of crime that integrates pyramid schemes and fraud.
"National Asset Thawing" case technique
In addition to playing the "history card", high-tech fraud in the electronic age is also common.
At the end of August this year, a graduate student Xiaoyu received a call from the "police", in which the "police" claimed that a user on her mobile phone number was involved in money laundering, hoping that she would go to the nearest police station to report the case and cooperate with the investigation by phone.
"Isn't that a typical scam call?"
"I also thought at first that the crooks hung up directly. But I really can't make a call on my phone. I immediately opened Baidu to search for the nearest police station, but I did not expect that the network signal was also intermittent and could not be queried. "When I started to worry, the 'policeman' called in again and accurately reported the information of my parents and my brother, and even knew the details of which university and major my brother was going to go to in September." ”
The other party said that Xiao Yu was suspected of money laundering, which had an impact on her parents' work and her brother's promotion to the school, and hoped that she would cooperate as soon as possible. According to the requirements of the other party, Xiao Yu entered "#**21*110#" and "*43#" in the dialing interface and dialed to activate. When Xiao Yu saw that there was "110" in the input code, she completely believed the other party, fortunately, when she was induced to remit a few thousand yuan, she suddenly woke up, stopped the loss in time and went to the police station to call the police.
In fact, "#**21*110#" and "*43#" are the codes for the phone settings "Unconditional Call Forwarding" and "Call Waiting", and any number larger than 3 digits can be activated immediately. The crooks will make the input "110", "120", "999", or the empty number that has been stopped, as needed. When this code is activated, even if the anti-fraud center detects that the victim is talking to the criminal, the police cannot call the victim's mobile phone number, or directly transfer it to the scammer.
When I asked why the phone could not be called out in the first place and the network signal was blocked, she replied that it was inconvenient to disclose.
How difficult is it to recover from telecom network fraud?
To crack down on telecommunications network fraud, we can only rely on the public security organs' "exhaustive pursuit and fierce attack" and "encirclement, pursuit, blockade and interception." It is not easy to recover the stolen goods, and it is even more difficult to recover the loss.
First of all, the awareness of some people to prevent fraud and oppose fraud needs to be strengthened. An experienced anti-fraud police officer said: "Anti-fraud centers and police stations across the country can receive telephone early warning information in multiple jurisdictions every day. Faced with our phone dissuasion, some of the masses were convinced that they had not been deceived. Especially in scams disguised as 'investment and wealth management', victims often think that they have a unique vision and have found business opportunities that others do not know - 'What do you little police officers know?' I can manage money, usually I give lessons to others, how can I be fooled? Middle-aged and elderly people often think that they have not been deceived, and you have persuaded too much, and he even pulled the police into the blacklist. Heck, it's a rush to send money to the crooks. ”
The scam syndicate was arrested and the victims were interviewed, still insisting that they had not been deceived.
Second, telecom network fraud is difficult to target criminals. A policeman handling the case told me: "This year, a citizen in my jurisdiction was defrauded of hundreds of thousands of dollars for 'borrowing money from the leader'. After receiving the police, we linked up with the bank and locked the 16 decentralized accounts associated with the scammers' accounts in 30 minutes, recovering most of the losses. But most of the time, when the victim realizes that the scam has come to report the crime, the stolen money has been transferred. ”
The police said that under normal circumstances, the remittances that victims enter the designated account of the fraudsters will quickly disperse from one card to several cards, and then to dozens or even hundreds of cards. It is transferred in a pyramid-like manner, and finally reduced to zero, which meets the conditions of each card to withdraw up to 20,000 cash, and is withdrawn and divided overseas or inverted pyramids and then transferred to the scammer's account layer by layer, and the layout is very precise.
In the process of arrest, the "criminal suspects" that the police have spent a lot of effort to find are often innocent people whose identities have been fraudulently used (such as college students, farmers in remote areas, and travel visa personnel), and such people have a characteristic, that is, there are not too many credit problems, and it is not easy to be supervised by banks. Sometimes, it is not "innocent people" who are traced, but "ghosts" who apply for a large number of savings cards and credit cards and resell them to fraud groups.
Third, even if an overseas fraud group is traced, it is difficult to recover the stolen money. "There are a lot of people who call the police and say, 'Don't you know the culprit when you check the Internet?' They think that the police are like agents in the movie, checking the IP or bank account can bring the scammers and stolen money back home. To tell the truth, the recovery of stolen goods abroad is very long, and it is even more difficult to encounter the epidemic in the past two years. Some of the deceived people think that the police are inactive, 'I think I think I think'..." The anti-fraud police cried and laughed.
In fact, on the one hand, most criminals will squander the stolen money and will not be able to repay it even if they are caught; on the other hand, overseas pursuits need to respect the judicial power of other countries. "Visas in Southeast Asia are easy to apply for. Coupled with the development of the Belt and Road, there are massive capital inflows and outflows every day, which are not easy to supervise. The loose management and even corruption of other governments and police have given fraudsters more opportunities to take advantage of. In some countries, companies with legal shells are internally selected Chinese fraudulent dens. At this stage of investigation, the case has already risen to a diplomatic and political issue. ”
Even if we have conclusive evidence of the suspect, if other countries refuse to extradite, it means that all the previous investigation work will be in vain. In practice, some countries will refuse to extradite criminals for economic gain because the stolen money has often been bought and purchased by criminals abroad. Even, because of the popularity of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Puppy Coin in recent years, international money laundering agencies have also provided new ideas for fraud groups.
Finally, the system of anti-fraud joint departments still needs to be improved. Telecommunications fraud usually involves a large number of people, and the investigation and collection of evidence is huge, which requires the coordination and cooperation of multiple police departments in many places.
An anti-fraud commissioner of the public security system told me: "In 2015, an inter-ministerial joint conference system against fraud was established, including 23 departments such as industrial and information technology departments and financial institutions. However, many anti-fraud functional departments, such as the 'Ping An Office' and the 'Joint Office', the public is estimated to have never heard of it. Sometimes, the joint authorities also believe that anti-fraud is a matter for the public security organs, and they have not taken practical action. If rewards and punishments are clearly defined, the public security forces strike hard, and jointly grasps the prevention, the results of the anti-fraud people's war will certainly be more prominent. ”
What efforts has the state made to protect the "money bags" of the masses?
It is better to stop boiling than to draw salary from the bottom of the kettle. To put an end to online telecommunications fraud, we should take precautions. Therefore, the National Anti-Fraud Center set up a special work class in 2020 to list "anti-fraud publicity" and "legal popularization education" as the top priority, so as to strengthen the awareness of anti-fraud of the whole people and reduce fraud cases from the source.
On February 1 this year, the National Anti-Fraud Center officially entered five new media platforms such as the People's Daily client, WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, and Kuaishou, and opened official government affairs accounts.
In March, the "Official APP of the National Anti-Fraud Center", a blockbuster of anti-fraud work, was officially launched. APP integrates a variety of functions such as case reporting assistant, clue reporting, fraud early warning, identity verification, anti-fraud publicity, etc., which can help the masses warn of fraud information, quickly report fraud content, efficiently extract electronic evidence, understand anti-deception skills, and effectively improve the ability to recognize fraud and prevent fraud.
Among them, the most powerful function is to provide early warning of fraudulent behavior. When you receive a suspicious call from a scammer, a suspicious text message or install a suspicious APP, it can intelligently identify and alert the police in advance, greatly reducing the possibility of being scammed.
It is worth noting that the copycat version of the "National Anti-Fraud Center" app of criminals has appeared, mostly highly deceptive phishing software. To download, please use it on the regular platform.
Telecommunications network fraud is widely harmful, and the chain involved in the case is long. To this end, the Ministry of Public Security and the Chinese Bank of China and other departments have jointly formulated an emergency stop payment and rapid freezing mechanism for the accounts involved in the case, and gradually realized the exchange of big data information between commercial banks and public security.
In addition, the bank office and ATM office are closely monitored and warned. As the focus of inspection and monitoring, the patrol officer or bank employee "discovers, two inquiries, and three dissuades" the transfer customers suspected of having encountered fraud.
Online financial institutions also need to be strictly guarded. In February, under the guidance of the National Anti-Fraud Center, the "Security Academy", a public welfare anti-fraud and anti-fraud platform set up by the Alipay Security Center, provided anti-fraud publicity for 700 million users to prevent the frequent "reserve fund refund" fraud impersonating Taobao customer service in recent years.
Real-name authentication, blocking the number change software and other means have made fraudsters more and more invisible. The relevant person in charge of a municipal public security bureau said: "In recent years, the "card breaking action" of the industrial and information technology department has played a huge role in cracking down on telecommunications network fraud. Broken cards refer to telephone cards and bank cards, which are inseparable from telephone dialing and layers of transfers in the process of fraud gangs to carry out scams and transfer of stolen funds abroad. Starting in 2020, by September 2021 is the 6th round of operation card breakage. Two cards are managed, which is equivalent to cutting off the 'left arm and right arm' of telecommunications fraud. ”
How "volume" is anti-fraud propaganda?
"There is a beautiful man in this building who was extorted for 40,000 yuan for online nude chat", "The man and the 'beautiful woman' online love were cheated of 1 million, and the 'girlfriend' was actually a nephew!" This is not a case briefing, but an anti-fraud exhortatory banner.
In recent years, "naked chat" and "online dating" fraud cases have occurred frequently, and the police in many places have pulled up "hardcore" banners reflecting the real cases of victims in the community and on the side of the street, and many propaganda content has become popular on the Internet.
At first glance, such promotional copywriting is suspected of being lace news, making people "think of it". However, it is undeniable that compared with traditional slogans such as "online dating is risky, job hunting needs to be cautious" in the past, the real case of grounding is obviously more effective in warning and publicity.
"Anti-fraud eggs" are highly acclaimed
On April 27, the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Public Security jointly launched the "Anti-Fraud General Mobilization of the Whole Society" publicity campaign. The activity pointed out that it is necessary to use various media and forms to explore and try new methods, and continue to set off a new upsurge of anti-fraud in the whole society.
A police station police officer said: "Many cities have also carried out this activity this year, and will continue to strengthen the publicity of students and parents in the future." With the implementation of the national mobile game anti-addiction system, many scammers are now eyeing primary and secondary school students. Scammers claim to be able to lift the time limit of the anti-addiction system and deceive students' parents of ID photos, bank cards and other information. ”
This year, a large number of people are concentrated in vaccination. The police in many places have made full use of the time spent in line or watching the masses to carry out anti-fraud propaganda, install the National Anti-Fraud Center app for the elderly hand in hand, and vaccinate the people with "anti-fraud vaccines". Because the "curative effect" is strong, there are even some "righteous relatives" of oolong.
The anti-fraud of the whole people will not be "naturally formed", nor can it rely solely on the "encirclement, pursuit and interception" of the public security organs, it requires the concerted efforts of the party and government organs, society and the people. As citizens, we should adhere to the bottom line of the law, be vigilant against the temptation of the "big cake", improve our awareness of fraud prevention and ability to recognize deception, and be an anti-deception person.
Having said all this, "Have you downloaded the National Anti-Fraud Center APP"?
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