paint spraying, ordinary quartz stone turns into raw jade stone in seconds; the live broadcast of stone opening, opening and closing is decided by the anchor; "jade merchants" recycle it on the spot, and criminals dress up in many roles to buy and sell for themselves... In the live broadcast room, it seems The luck-based rough stone trading is actually a scam carefully designed and fully controlled by fraudsters.
Nandu reporter learned that the Shanghai police started from this case of buying jade rough stones and successfully dug up a fraud gang that used false stone cutting and false recycling methods to defraud money under the guise of "live broadcast selling jade rough stones" and arrested Jiang and others There were 35 suspects, and the amount involved amounted to more than 2 million yuan.
Shanghai police uncovered a new fraud case of "live broadcast selling jade rough stones". Picture provided by the Shanghai police
They consider themselves bad luck However, there are many victims who failed to open the stone
In October 2023, the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau received a report from a citizen, Mr. Fan, who said that he "told merchants on a certain online live broadcast platform" "Senhan Jewelry Store" transferred 2,688 yuan to buy jade. After paying the money, he was kicked out of the live broadcast room and was blocked by customer service on WeChat.
Mr. Fan told the police that when he was browsing short videos, he came across an advertisement for "Buying and selling jade in the live broadcast room, and there are benefits for newcomers", so he added customer service WeChat. The customer service told me that as long as I entered the live broadcast room, I could get a rough stone for free, and pushed a link to the live broadcast platform and the live broadcast room number. After entering the live broadcast room, I saw the anchor and a person who called himself a "jade merchant" introducing a bright gray stone with a price tag of 8,880 yuan. It was quickly bought by 10 buyers, and then the anchor walked to the corner. He "cut the stone" on the spot for the camera, only to hear the loud cutting sound. When he turned around again, the stone in his hand had been cut into corners, revealing a bit of green, giving people a feeling very much like jade. The "jade merchant" immediately offered to recycle 10,800 yuan. In just a few minutes, the 10 buyers jointly earned a price difference of 1,920 yuan.
After watching several rounds of stone mining and trading, Mr. Fan couldn't help but be tempted by such a short-term, high-return trading method, so he began to participate in joint buying. Within two days, he transferred more than 12,000 yuan and bought and sold 12 orders, with both profits and losses, until After the last payment, I was kicked out of the live broadcast room, and customer service lost contact.
The stone cutting process is completely invisible. The rough stones are sold but not shipped but recycled on the spot. After large transfers, they are immediately blacklisted and lost contact... These unusual shopping details attracted the attention of the Shanghai Pudong police, who judged that this was a case of fraud. A new method of fraud was used in the name of buying and selling rough stones, so a task force was formed to carry out investigation. While searching for the victim buyers to obtain more evidence, the police were organized to go to Yunnan to investigate the criminal dens.
In Yunnan, police investigation found that the so-called "Senhan Jewelry Store" did not exist, but was just a fictitious store. Starting from the suspect's identity information they already had, and after many days of visits and investigations, the task force found a suspicious villa in a local villa area where live streaming e-commerce companies gathered. It was brightly lit late at night, and there were sounds of cutting stones from time to time. There is a mechanical sound, and there are various signs that this is the live broadcast den of the fraud gang.
Mr. Li, who lives in Sichuan and suffered losses of more than 350,000 yuan, did not realize that he had been deceived until the Shanghai police came to his door. In one month, he made a total of 41 payments to the other party's account through bank transfers, with the highest amount reaching 160,000 yuan. It was not until the last transfer of 5,000 yuan that he was kicked out of the live broadcast room and blocked by the other party. During this period, he only made money from two small orders. He always thought that it was because he was unlucky and failed to open the stone that he lost money. There are many similar situations, and most victim buyers are unaware that they have been deceived.
After being sprayed with paint, it "transformed" into jade stone, and the division of labor among the fraud gangs was clear.
After investigation, the criminal suspect Jiang and others purchased a pile of ordinary quartz stones produced locally in order to obtain illegal benefits, sprayed them with paint and marked them as "jade stone." "" was used in the live broadcast room to conduct false stone mining, false joint purchases, and false recycling to defraud victim buyers of their money.
The dark ones in the picture are ordinary quartz stones that are spray-painted under the name of "jade stone", and the light colors are ordinary quartz stones that have not been treated.Photographed by Nandu reporter Zhao Weijia. The members of the
gang have a clear division of labor. The traffic recruiters are responsible for advertising on the short video platform to attract potential victims, while the customer service further screens the targets through chat communication and introduces them to the "tailor-made" live broadcast room. Other members formed a live broadcast team. Under the command of the team leader, they acted as anchors and "jade merchants" and sang and touted their business in front of the camera. Those who acted as audience members helped warm up the atmosphere in the audience and pretended to participate in the purchase of rough stones. In fact, the surface and cut surfaces of the rough stones used in the live broadcast room are spray-painted, and the corresponding rough stones are selected according to transaction needs to control the results of the stone opening. The rough stones that have been repainted afterwards will return to the live broadcast room, truly achieving "zero loss".
According to Jiangâs confession, there was only one victim in these live broadcast rooms from beginning to end, and the other viewers were pretended by gang members who controlled multiple or even dozens of accounts. As long as the victim enters the live broadcast room, the fraudsters will start their own performances according to the script, continue to buy and sell rough stones, create a warm atmosphere, and induce the victim to participate in the purchase. Once the victim places an order, they will initially place some small orders to allow the victim to make a small amount of money to attract them to continue placing orders, and then slowly increase the price of rough stones until enough money is defrauded. And if the victim is never interested in large orders, they will promptly kick him out of the live broadcast room. In order to settle the matter, the fraud gang will also send fake jade pendants to the victims seeking explanations.
After preliminary verification by the police, since October 2023, this fraud gang has defrauded more than 2 million yuan from all over the country. At present, 35 criminal suspects including Jiang have been arrested by the procuratorate in accordance with the law on suspicion of fraud, and the case is under further investigation.
On March 19, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau held a press conference to report on the effectiveness and typical cases of the Shanghai police's measures to combat online live broadcast fraud, and exposed the above-mentioned "live broadcast selling of raw jade stones" fraud tactics in online live broadcast rooms.
[ Police reminder ]
You need to be wary of these five types of online live broadcast fraud methods
Yin Yanlin, deputy head of the ninth detachment of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, said, "From the reported cases, the city's electronic fraud cases are people pretending to be customer service, false There are three main types of shopping and rebates, accounting for nearly 70%. Types such as fake acquaintances, fake loans, and fake public prosecutors also occur from time to time. With the development of the live broadcast economy, some criminals use the recharge of online live broadcasts to reward , barrage interaction, promotion and traffic and other functions, to defraud money under the guise of dating, PK, live selling, etc." After sorting out, there are mainly the following five types of techniques:
The first is love and dating scams , that is, fraudsters As an "online anchor", under the guise of love, making friends, etc., he uses prepared words to lure the victim to the live broadcast room to watch the live broadcast, and gradually lures the victim into a sex trap through offline meetings and other hints, and makes the victim fall into a sex trap step by step. They recharge in the live broadcast room to give gifts or help defeat opponents to win PK, in order to achieve the purpose of defrauding money.
The second is fake online shopping , that is, fraudsters release so-called "high-quality" products through online live broadcast platforms, including some health products and collectibles, to attract victims to buy, and then use false links, pass off substandard goods, and falsely deliver goods and other methods to defraud money, and most of the so-called "audiences" in the live broadcast room are "vests" of scammers. In addition to helping to create an atmosphere of hot-selling products, once any viewers who make unfavorable remarks about the live broadcast are found, they will be banned immediately. Kicked out of the live broadcast room.
The third category is live broadcast course sales , that is, fraudsters often take advantage of the victim's desire for quick profits and publish "selling courses" information such as account operation and live broadcast goods through the live broadcast platform to attract victims to actively contact them. At first, the fraudsters will charge a small "course purchase" fee to allow the victim to watch replays of the course normally, or send some temporary links for learning. When the victim relaxes his vigilance and increases his trust, he will then induce the victim to pay a large amount. After paying for the course, it will be blocked and deleted.
The fourth is investment subscription , that is, fraudsters publish a large number of videos on short video platforms to attract target groups, fabricate products and commodity values, and gradually induce customers to purchase physical goods. For example, in the "jade live broadcast" type of fraud mentioned above, criminals use live broadcasts to unveil jade and jade, supplement it with trolls' hype, and promise to "appreciate" the jade and then recycle it at a high price or help resell it, attracting victims to invest and subscribe, thereby defrauding money.
The fifth is live streaming , that is, the traffic gang buys and controls a large number of short video platform accounts, publishes related videos and traffic QR codes that have been produced in advance, and then increases exposure through online live broadcasts and other methods to attract users to other platforms or Add customer service contact information, and the customer service staff will continue to use tricks to gain the trust of users, and then implement fraud, naked chat fraud, etc.
Police reminder: Citizens should consciously resist bad temptations when surfing the Internet and cultivate healthy Internet habits. Anyone who claims to be an anchor, anchor assistant or platform customer service and actively adds friends must be carefully verified and do not be gullible. When shopping online, do not leave the supervision of the platform, do not invest and manage money on websites or software of unknown origin, and do not scan or click on QR codes and unknown links sent by strangers at will, and beware of being deceived.
Interview and writing: Nandu reporter Zhao Weijia from Shanghai
