"Fortuna International" transnational fraud syndicate case opens: in the name of love, victims spread across hundreds of cities and counties

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reporter Jia Chen editor Xiang Jiaqing

On the Internet, "he" is just a person, a "tall, rich and handsome" and "big stockholder" who is looking for a "soul mate".

In reality, "he" is not a person, but a "team", a system, and a group.

They are in Myanmar, but they care about women in their 30s in China. They use repeated deduction to open their hearts again and again, and then use another set of "trap" to steal their money again and again. In February 2021, the case was solved. Upstream news reporters learned that this case was once a huge cross-border telecommunications network fraud case listed and supervised by the Ministry of Public Security.

On January 10, 2022, the "Fortuna International" transnational fraud group case was opened in the first instance of the People's Court of Xiji County, Guyuan City, Ningxia. The indictment shows that in less than two years, hundreds of people were deceived, covering 102 cities and counties in 27 provinces across the country, and the amount involved was more than 28.07 million yuan.

Due to the large number of defendants involved in the case, the large amount of money, and the large number of criminal facts and evidence materials, the trial is expected to last for 8 days.

'Fortuna International' transnational fraud syndicate case opens: in the name of love, victims spread across hundreds of cities and counties - Lujuba

On January 10, the "Fortuna International" transnational fraud group case was opened in the first instance of the People's Court of Xiji County, Guyuan City, Ningxia.

Image source/screenshot of live court trial

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4z A drug-related person leads a cross-border telecommunications network fraud group

This extraordinarily large cross-border telecom network fraud case was discovered because of a drug-related person.

At the beginning of February 2020, Su, a resident of Xiji County, Guyuan, Ningxia, entered the field of investigation of the local police.

Su is a drug-related person. The police found that this person often travels between China and Myanmar. During the investigation, the police further discovered that Su not only had a history of drug abuse, but also engaged in illegal and criminal activities of "killing pigs" fraud in Mengbo County in northern Myanmar for a long time.

In Myanmar, Su Mou worked for a company called "Fortuna International". Police investigation found that the group carried out telecom fraud activities in an organized way to the country.

The Guyuan City Public Security Bureau immediately set up a task force and designated the Xiji County Public Security Bureau as the investigation unit for the "3.28" extraordinarily large cross-border telecommunications network fraud crime case.

On June 16, 2020, the "3.28" extraordinarily large cross-border telecommunications network fraud case was listed by the Office (Ministry of Public Security) of the Ministry-level Joint Conference on Combating and Controlling Telecommunications Network Fraud by the State Council as the first batch of listed and supervised cases in 2020.

The police investigation found that "Fortuna International" was established in 2019 and is resident in Mengbo County, Myanmar. The members of the group are mainly people from Ji'an, Jiangxi Province, with fellow students, relatives and friends as the link, implementing corporate management, and constantly luring domestic unemployed people to smuggle Go to Burma and join a fraud syndicate.

The criminal group mainly screens the target victims through some marriage and dating websites on the Internet, and then uses social software to gain trust with the victims by "falling in love" with false identities, and induces the victims to go to the pre-built fake gambling websites and stocks , Futures and other investment platforms make false investments to defraud victims of their money.

At the beginning of August 2020, under the guidance of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, with the cooperation of the police from many provinces and cities in China, the "3.28" extraordinarily large cross-border telecommunications network fraud case was collected in a centralized manner. During

’s network collection operation, the special case team went to Jiangxi, Yunnan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other places, and arrested 90 criminal suspects who returned from abroad, including the boss, director, and finance of the fraud group. 7.18 million yuan in cash was deducted, 2 sets of real estate involved in the case, 1 vehicle, 551 bank cards of various types were confiscated, and a number of criminal tools such as mobile phones and computers were confiscated.

This case is also one of the typical cases of precise research and judgment and precise strikes from "a single suspect to the whole chain of black and gray production".

'Fortuna International' transnational fraud syndicate case opens: in the name of love, victims spread across hundreds of cities and counties - Lujuba

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4zCorporate operation with meticulous division of labor

On January 10 this year, the "Fortuna International" transnational fraud group case was held in the first instance of the People's Court of Xiji County, Guyuan City, Ningxia.

The public prosecution agency accused Zeng Ying, Zhong Shuihua and other 67 people (distributed in 11 provinces and cities) of committing fraud, illegally crossing the national (border) border, helping information network criminal activities , covering up and concealing criminal proceeds, and luring Drug abuse by others.

Upstream journalists learned that the defendants who were tried in this trial were only part of the case, and there were many others.Defendants were charged separately. The

indictment also disclosed the whole story of the establishment of "Fortuna International". The

indictment shows that Zhong Shuihua once participated in online gambling, and after having a certain understanding of online gambling, he came up with the idea of ​​doing online gambling by himself.

Zhong Shuihua contacted Zeng Ying, and the two met to go to Myanmar to do online gambling. On February 24, 2019, after Zeng Ying and Zhong Shuihua took a plane from Jiangxi to Yunnan, they illegally left the country for Myanmar.

In mid-March 2019, in Mengbo County, Myanmar, Zeng Ying and Zhong Shuihua successively rented offices, set up an unregistered "Fortuna International" company, rented computers and mobile phones, purchased receiving bank accounts, social software accounts, and could modify them in the background Lottery data and results program.

Since then, the group began to recruit key members of the organization to carry out fraudulent activities, and gradually formed a criminal group with the boss, director, agent, team leader, and team members of the fraudulent group as its organizational structure, with distinct levels and strict management, and jointly carried out fraudulent activities. The

indictment shows that Zeng Ying founded the criminal group and was fully responsible for controlling the activities of the criminal group, arranging agents to manage each fraud team, arranging special personnel to teach fraud methods, collecting criminal proceeds, distributing criminal proceeds, and participating in the amount involved A total of more than 28.07 million yuan.

The specific division of labor of this criminal group is: the director is responsible for the daily management of the company; the customer service is responsible for controlling the background of malicious programs and operating the lottery results; Group members, training group members, assisting group members to chat, making decisions to block victims, etc.

In addition, the group also has a dedicated website technical team, financial team, telephone team, and customer service team. They have special personnel responsible for connecting with money laundering companies, settling expenses with agents, connecting with snakeheads, and helping people involved in the case buy air tickets and arrange meals. There is also a special person responsible for repairing computers and mobile phones, installing mobile phone software, unblocking social software accounts, etc. The stolen money seized by the

'Fortuna International' transnational fraud syndicate case opens: in the name of love, victims spread across hundreds of cities and counties - Lujuba

task force at the suspect's home.

Image source/Guyuan City Police

3 Every reply has been carefully deduced

Upstream news reporters noticed that even for a new team member, the criminal group has a clear division of labor. The newly joined team members of

are first trained in speech skills by the group director, agent, team leader, etc., and repackage their identity information on social platforms.

Some defendants said that they would pretend to be "high, rich and handsome", "coin speculators", "order assistants", "stockholders" and other identities, and make friends with victims on social networks on the grounds of falling in love and looking for "soul mates" .

Upstream journalists noticed that they targeted women in their 30s. After the

members of the group added the victim as friends, they started to fall in love and talk about feelings, and gradually gained the trust of the other party.

There are suspects who confess in court. Their company has different "teams". After adding the victim, every greeting and every reply is sent after repeated deduction by the "team". Some replies even require them to hold a group meeting to study and decide . The

indictment shows that after gaining the trust of the victim, the members of the group pushed relevant malicious software to the victim in the name of engaging in side business and investing to make money, and then tricked the victim into submitting a bait by providing market information, acting as an agent, and ensuring money Top-ups to bank accounts provided by the criminal group.

In the beginning, the victims would make a small profit. Afterwards, some customer service added victims, using recharge activities, overnight deposits, recharge buy gift activities, insufficient cash withdrawals to pay for turnover, cash withdrawals required to pay personal income tax, security deposits, etc. to lure victims After the victim makes additional investment, the customer service will artificially create the illusion that the victim’s account is losing money by controlling the lottery results, etc., and then close the victim’s account, block the victim’s contact information, and finally achieve the purpose of embezzling the victim’s money . According to the

indictment, at the beginning of the establishment of the group, it took only 8 days to defraud a victim of more than 490,000 yuan, and the maximum defrauded amounted to one million yuan.

From April 2019 to the incident, the fraud group headed by Zeng Ying had a total of 196 victims in less than two years, covering 102 cities and counties in 27 provinces across the country, involving more than 28.07 million yuan.

'Fortuna International' transnational fraud syndicate case opens: in the name of love, victims spread across hundreds of cities and counties - Lujuba

On January 10, the public prosecutor told the main criminal in the case that he pleaded guilty in the hope that his conscience could be at peace.

Picture source/Screenshot of the trial live broadcast

4 Those who wrote illegal software codes were also defendants

Upstream news reporters noticed that in this case, another 7 people who wrote software programs also became defendants. ". The

indictment shows that the 7 defendants wrote programs using source code downloaded from the Internet or source code provided by others, and sold them publicly on the Internet. The technology software written by

7 can modify the data in the background according to the needs of the next owner, and control the result of the lottery.

In March 2019, Zeng Ying asked one of the defendants to customize gambling software. After the software producers rewritten the program, they sold it to Zeng Ying through an intermediary. Since then, Zeng Ying and others have used these programs to commit telecom fraud. The public prosecutor of

believes that the seven defendants knew that the software they wrote might be used by others for online gambling and telecommunications fraud, but they still recruited agents and provided maintenance and other after-sales services. Some defendants used other people’s bank accounts to avoid regulatory risks. collection. The

upstream news reporter also noticed that someone in the case was charged with inducing others to take drugs. The

public prosecution accused that at the beginning of August 2020, 4 people from the group left. After Zeng Ying found the 4 people, in order to invite the 4 people to continue to engage in telecom fraud, they spent money in a KTV in Myanmar. "Come out once to see the world", publicly demonstrate and lure others to take "K powder", all those present at the time participated in drug use.

'Fortuna International' transnational fraud syndicate case opens: in the name of love, victims spread across hundreds of cities and counties - Lujuba

In February 2021, the "Fortuna International" transnational fraud group case was solved.

Picture source/Guyuan City Police

5 Public prosecutor: Plead guilty in the hope that your conscience will be at peace

Faced with the charges of the public prosecution agency, Zeng Ying denied it in court and said that she pleaded not guilty and accepted punishment.

Zeng Ying argued that he was not the owner of the group, nor did he participate in fraudulent activities, and he only provided a platform. "I went to Myanmar to have fun."

But the other suspects all said that Zeng Ying was the boss of the group.

"Then what do you do for a living over there?" the prosecutor asked.

"When I went there, I brought hundreds of thousands of dollars with me to make some money in casinos and KTVs..." Zeng Ying argued.

The investigation agency found that Zeng Ying had remitted money to her mother's bank account several times, with a total amount of tens of millions of yuan, but Zeng Ying argued that the money was not his, and he was just earning some handling fees.

"I just have a good relationship with some people in the company... I just provided an online gambling platform for a month." Zeng Ying argued. When

asked Zeng Ying, the public prosecutor said, "How many people have suffered losses and economic pressure due to your fraudulent behavior, and some victims have been defrauded of millions of dollars. Your fraudulent behavior even destroyed a family. Pleading guilty is not only to obtain a lighter legal punishment, but also to gain a little peace of mind when facing more victims..."

Due to the large number of defendants involved, the large amount of money, and the large number of criminal facts and evidence materials , The trial is expected to last 8 days.

source: upstream news

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