relied on the "fan circle" culture and the title of "big fan" to falsely claim that she could buy low-price concert tickets and related peripheral products. In less than a year, she defrauded fans of more than 3 million yuan. . Recently, after a public prosecution was launched by the Jiangyin City Procuratorate in Jiangsu Province, the court sentenced Wu to 11 years and six months in prison for fraud and fined him 150,000 yuan.
The "big fan" ran away with the money
"This group of more than 70 people is full of star chasers, and many of them were deceived like me!" In January this year, Xiao Sun came to Jiangyin City Public Security Bureau to report the case, The "big fans" who pre-sold concert tickets ran away. "Big fans" in
"fanquan" refer to fans with appeal and influence. They play a core role in the fan group and influence the behavior and attitudes of other fans by organizing activities, publishing content, etc. In September 2023, Xiao Sun became obsessed with a Korean star group. Because the group was so popular, the tickets for its concert were sold out as soon as they went on sale. When Xiao Sun was wondering whether to buy high-priced scalper tickets, the big fan "Zhuzhu Sweet Edition ATM" posted a group purchase link in the fan group, saying that tickets could be purchased in groups at a price much lower than the scalper tickets.
"Zhuzhu Sweet Edition ATM" is a famous "big fan" in the Korean celebrity group "Fanquan". He often posts photos and videos of interactions with celebrities on Weibo and WeChat groups, and has a high prestige among fans. With the foreshadowing of the "Piggy Sweet Edition ATM" character design, Xiao Sun was convinced of the channel in front of him to obtain low-price tickets. He decisively took a photo of the link and secretly rejoiced at the big deal. Subsequently, Xiao Sun successively purchased concert tickets, albums, postcards, signed clothing and other peripheral products in January this year from the links posted on the account, totaling more than 25,000 yuan. However, the products never shipped. After repeatedly urging the order to no avail, Xiao Sun realized that he had been cheated and called the police.
After the Jiangyin Municipal Public Security Bureau opened the case for investigation, the suspect Wu was arrested in March this year. After the investigation was completed, he was transferred to the Jiangyin Municipal Procuratorate for review and prosecution.
Buy high and sell low to gain the trust of fans
At the end of 2022, 21-year-old Wu became obsessed with a Korean star group. Not only did he follow the concert, but he also followed the idol around to take photos and pick him up at the airport. On the way to chasing stars, Wu met many star-chasers like her through Weibo and offline activities. After everyone added each other on WeChat, a WeChat group was established to chase stars together.
Due to the large expenses such as concert tickets, peripheral products, accommodation, and transportation during the pursuit of stars, Wu, who was unemployed, gradually started to have other ideas.
"I know insiders who can buy concert tickets at cheap prices and good locations." In May 2023, she falsely claimed that she had special channels in the WeChat group of fans who were chasing stars together, and started the first wave of operations.
After receiving orders from fans, Wu, who did not have the ability to buy tickets at low prices, found scalpers, bought concert tickets at high prices, and then sold them to fans at low prices. After this operation, the fans who got the tickets had no doubts about Wu. Since then, more and more "little fans" and fans have come to Wu to inquire about ticketing and peripheral product purchases. After Wu accumulated the trust of a large number of fans, he began to commit fraud. She sent links to group tickets and peripheral products to her fan base, attracting fans to buy at prices far below market prices, and transferred the money paid by fans directly into her account through WeChat and Alipay. After
obtained the money, Wu bought a small amount of tickets and peripheral products to deal with fans, and used most of the remaining money for personal star chasing. Sometimes in order to establish his own powerful persona, Wu will also take over the star-chasing expenses of fellow fans.
For the fans who did not get the tickets and peripheral products and began to push for orders non-stop, Wu first delayed using reasons such as "slow logistics" and "waiting for internal channels". When encountering fans with tough attitudes or strong awareness of rights protection, Wu Then he "tear down the east wall to pay for the west wall" and use the newly defrauded money to buy some tickets and peripheral products to pay off the "old debt", and then continue to defraud other fans for the same reason.
During this period, Wu used most of the money obtained from the fraud to chase stars. Wu spent tens of thousands of yuan every time he went to other places to chase stars. The snowball of chasing stars grew bigger and bigger, and more and more holes were filled.
Dong Chuang was imprisoned after the incident
In February this year, the Jiangyin Municipal Public Security Bureau criminally detained Wu, and relied on the Office of Investigation, Supervision and Cooperation to request the Jiangyin Municipal Procuratorate to intervene in accordance with the law. The procuratorial organs guided the public security organs to fix the amount of the victim's fraud, and retrieve key evidence such as transaction details and chat records with the victim, as well as transaction records on WeChat and Alipay regarding the purchase of celebrity signing events and other peripheral products. In March, the police initially found that the amount of Wu's crime had exceeded 1.6 million yuan, so they requested the Jiangyin City Procuratorate to approve Wu's arrest.
After approving the arrest, the Jiangyin City Procuratorate outlined an outline for continued investigation and asked the public security organs to focus on screening Wu’s WeChat and Alipay transaction partners to clarify the scope of the victims. In May of this year, the Jiangyin Municipal Public Security Bureau finally identified 38 victims with a fraud amount of more than 3 million yuan, and transferred the case to the Jiangyin Municipal Procuratorate for review and prosecution.
In July this year, the Jiangyin City Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Wu, and the court made the above decision.
Editor’s Comment
The “rice circle” cannot become a hotbed of fraud
The continued boom in the “rice circle” economy is nothing new. It has become a trend to buy endorsements, scan data, follow people at the airport, vote for idols, and promote "idols" (in Internet terms, idols). "Krypton gold" (in Internet terms, it means recharge behavior) is even more common. Many fans are coerced by the atmosphere of the "fandom", and it is common for them to spend huge sums of money. All kinds of irrational behaviors not only make outsiders stunned, but also make some criminals have twisted thoughts.
uses the "rice circle" to defraud people in a variety of ways. Some criminals take advantage of fans' enthusiasm for idols to defraud money under the guise of selling fake idol concert tickets and peripheral products; some promise to provide opportunities for intimate interaction with idols, but disappear without a trace after charging a fee ; There are also so-called "fans" who enrich themselves while organizing support activities, and eventually run away with huge amounts of funds raised...
We must guard against fraud using "fan circles", and we must also deal with the almost crazy "fan circles". It must be noted that the frequent success of scammers is related to the abnormal "rice circle" culture. When fans’ love for idols turns into a competition for “krypton gold”, star chasing has already changed. To eradicate fraud in the "rice circle", we must not only intensify the crackdown on telecommunications and network fraud crimes and severely punish illegal activities in the "rice circle"; we must also strengthen the promotion of the rule of law, call on fans to follow stars rationally, and protect the safety of their own property. (Shi Jia)
Source: Procuratorate Daily·Rule of Law News Edition
