I said ("Brother Ming") is very caring, which makes me like him. I think he is quite capable, well-spoken, smart, and has the image of a successful person. June 2023, Shanghai....

I said ("Brother Ming") is very caring.

I have a good impression of him.

I think he is quite capable.

He is well-spoken. Ms. Li from Shanghai met a friend on the Internet. This friend called himself "Brother Ming" and was the owner of a well-known tea company. "Brother Ming" often takes the initiative to contact Ms. Li and share details of his life. "Brother Ming" can play golf, run in the morning, go fishing, and tend flowers and plants. He will ask Ms. Li for her opinion when giving gifts to her daughter, send her charity photos, and go to temples to burn incense and pray for her.

After Ms. Li got to know "Brother Ming" for a while, "Brother Ming" said that he could make money with her, and then he pulled her into a study group. The people in the group were also friends of "Brother Ming". After Ms. Li studied in the group for a period of time, "Brother Ming" posted news in the group that his tea factory was recruiting dealers.

"Brother Ming" persuaded Ms. Li to grab the dealer spot and told her that everyone was competing for the dealer spot and if she did it after a while, she would miss a good opportunity. Later, Ms. Li transferred 5,000 yuan to "Brother Ming", intending to occupy a spot first. A few days later, "Brother Ming" told Ms. Li that the 5,000 yuan she paid last time was just an advance payment, and she needed to pay another 45,000 yuan as a final payment, otherwise she would not be able to keep her place. Ms. Li then borrowed 45,000 yuan from here and there and transferred it to "Brother Ming."

After Ms. Li paid 50,000 yuan, "Brother Ming" sent over 50,000 yuan worth of tea. Ms. Li did not accept it, returned the express to the original route, and told "Brother Ming" to wait until he was ready to start a career before sending the tea. But "Brother Ming" has not replied to messages or answered calls. As time passed, Ms. Li felt more and more that she had been deceived and chose to call the police.

A fraud gang operating in three provinces and four places

After receiving the report, the Shanghai police first tracked the victim’s capital flow. The police discovered that the victim’s money was received through a corporate WeChat account, and the person in charge of this company was a man surnamed Wei. After investigating the identity of the company's employees, it was discovered that the WeChat ID of one of the employees surnamed Li was the same as the "Ming Ge" WeChat account suspected of defrauding Ms. Li. The police determined that Wei and his team were actually a telecommunications network fraud gang. .

The police also discovered that Wei had frequent contact with a person named Zuo and would regularly send him money. After investigation, it was found that the tea leaves received by the victim in this case were mailed by Zuo's father, and the victim's money may have been remitted to Zuo's account. By investigating Zuo's account, the police found that in addition to Wei, there were three other people who regularly sent money to Zuo. Their people were scattered across three provinces, defrauding money from dealers in the name of promoting and selling tea.

On April 18, 2024, Shanghai Yangpu police organized nearly 100 police officers and arrested 31 suspects, including Wei and Zuo, and seized a large number of mobile phones, computers, account books and scripts.

The "elaborate" scam hidden behind the perfect persona

After being arrested, Wei confessed that they were all agents of Zuo, and all scams were designed and directed by Zuo. They carefully created the character "Brother Ming", hired a lecturer to play the role of "Brother Ming", and took a large number of videos and photos of "Brother Ming".

After the image design of "Brother Ming" was completed, Zuo arranged for all salesmen to use the name and image of "Brother Ming" to interact with the victim. After gaining the victim's initial trust, the victim is brought into a "study group" where everyone except the victim is a shill.

During the investigation, the police found that most of these victims were middle-aged and elderly single women. Zuo and others had preset fraud targets among these groups. After fully "brainwashing" the victims, they would make the victims pay money to compete for dealers. Quota. When the victim remits the money, he or she will mail some tea to the victim regardless of whether the victim is willing or not. This is not only to disguise it as a business transaction to avoid attack, but also to worry about the victim causing trouble.

According to Wei and others, Zuo controlled the entire fraud cycle to about 30 days. Regardless of whether the victim was fooled or not, he would be blacklisted after the one-month cycle, and the entire gang would enter vacation mode and return to their old business after a period of time. , starting a new round of fraud.

The police finally determined that the criminal gang centered on Zuo defrauded more than 150 people from June 2023 to the incident, and the amount involved amounted to more than 1.2 million yuan. In May 2024, 15 people including the criminal suspects Zuo and Wei were arrested by the Yangpu District People's Procuratorate of Shanghai on suspicion of fraud. At present, the illegal gains of Zuo and others are being recovered, but the lecturer whose image was borrowed to play "Brother Ming" was not held legally responsible because he did not know that Zuo and others used his image and videos to engage in fraudulent activities.

Legal Popularization Time

q1: In this case, Zuo and the victim seemed to be involved in a transaction. Why did the prosecutors still believe that they were involved in fraud?

a1: Judging from the entire case, the fraudsters carefully created their personas at the beginning, and then used fictitious facts such as snapping up dealer quotas, which have fully proved the fraudsters' intention to illegally occupy the victim's money. After receiving the money, he sent tea leaves, also trying to disguise this behavior as a normal civil interaction. But this is not a normal civil interaction, and the tea leaves sent are fake. His behavior cannot completely conceal the essence of his fraud. Therefore, he should still be convicted and punished for fraud.

q2: Most of the victims in this case are middle-aged and elderly women. Why are they deceived in this type of case? Any suggestions?

a2: Women are often easy targets for scammers because of their personality and psychological characteristics. According to past judicial practice, the proportion of female victims in fraud cases is higher than that of males. Middle-aged and elderly women generally have a certain amount of savings, and their contact with society is basically gradually reduced. In this case, she has relatively little access to relevant information, especially new changes in fraud crimes, so her awareness of fraud prevention will be weak and she will be more likely to be deceived. In terms of anti-fraud, each of us should enhance our awareness of anti-fraud. When encountering relevant situations, do not rush to transfer money, but consciously verify and consult before making a decision. At the same time, we must also enhance our ability to detect fraud. For example, we can pay more attention to relevant news and anti-fraud public accounts of public security organs, and have a grasp and understanding of common forms of fraud crimes and the latest changes.

(cctv today’s statement)