Now that people are more and more accustomed to using electronic payment methods, the demand for digital payment methods is also growing. However, some criminal suspects saw an opportunity to take advantage of. Recently, the police in Cao County, Heze, Shandong Province cracked a case of using digital renminbi to commit fraud, and tens of thousands of people were deceived.
Mr. Zhang, who lives in Cao County, Heze, Shandong, usually likes to buy some financial products online. In February last year, he was pulled into an investment and financial management group by netizens.
Victim Mr. Zhang: There is a teacher in the group teaching you how to manage money. He said that there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to download an app called "Digital Credit" on your mobile phone. The teacher said that our country is now entering the era of digital renminbi. Consumers have to use digital renminbi. He said that this "digital credit" app can buy things online just like Alipay and WeChat.
The teacher in the group told Mr. Zhang and others that the "digital credit" app is equivalent to digital renminbi, saying that they only need to pay a certification fee ranging from 10 yuan to 500 yuan, and they can use a credit line ranging from 100,000 to 5 million yuan for free. .
Victim Mr. Zhang: At that time, the teacher said that this credit line can be used to purchase goods on shopping platforms such as Taobao and JD.com, and it can also be withdrawn to bank cards. It is a welfare provided by our country to ordinary people and does not charge any interest. There is no need to pay back the money after the credit is used up, but the teacher said that this credit can not buy luxury goods, only our domestic products.
Believing it was true, Mr. Zhang downloaded and registered an app called "Digital Credit" on his mobile phone. Later, the App interface issued him a credit line of 2.8 million yuan, but the premise of using it was that Mr. Zhang had to pay a 280 yuan certification fee. , used to activate the quota.
Victim Mr. Zhang: Actually, I really don’t know much about this digital renminbi. At that time, I just wanted to try it out and paid a certification fee of 280 yuan. After the payment, it showed that I had a credit line of 2.8 million yuan, but I couldn’t Hua said that these quotas can only be activated after March 15, 2022.
The customer service also told Mr. Zhang that if you recruit new members to download the app and pay the certification fee, you can also increase your credit limit. The more people you recruit, you can get the privilege of using the credit first.
The victim, Mr. Zhang: I recommended a few friends to download this app, and then the app showed my credit limit, which eventually reached 5 million yuan, but after March 15, 2022, I found that the credit limit was still not available. Using it, I couldn’t buy things, and I couldn’t withdraw cash. In the end, the app couldn’t be opened. My friends were in the same situation as me. I felt cheated, and then I hurried to call the police.
Through investigation, the police found that the "Digital Credit" APP was actually a counterfeit software illegally built by scammers overseas, and they also forged the documents of the People's Bank of China and the real "Digital RMB" logo to confuse the public.
Sun Lu, a policeman from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Cao County Public Security Bureau, Heze City, Shandong Province: Mr. Zhang transferred money according to his credit line, and he transferred 280 yuan at that time. He thought that the money was transferred to the (App) platform, but after our investigation, we found that the money was actually transferred to a personal account named Yao XX. By investigating Yao's bank card, we found that in just a few days, more than 8 million yuan had been withdrawn. It can be seen that there were many victims of this fraud case, so we immediately froze Yao's bank card.
According to the transfer records of Yao's bank card, the police handling the case discovered more than a dozen accounts involved in the case, and arrested these suspects involved in "two card" crimes and money laundering crimes one by one.
Police remind: Look for formal financial institutions and don't trust unofficial software
So far, the local police have arrested 27 suspects and recovered more than 32 million yuan in stolen money. After investigation, the domestic criminal suspects and foreign criminal suspects of this gang should cooperate internally and externally. The overseas personnel are responsible for writing this copycat software, while the domestic personnel are mainly responsible for the domestic fraud.
After in-depth investigation by the police, it was found that because the criminal suspects did not defraud much each time, many victims like Mr. Zhang were deceived. In just over a month, tens of thousands of people were deceived across the country.
At present, some suspects have been transferred to the Intermediate People's Court of Heze City for trial according to law. The online personnel in the case and the police handling the case are still digging deep into the investigation. The police said that since these trading websites and servers are located overseas, investors participate in the speculation of digital currency. If losses occur, it is difficult to recover the losses through judicial procedures.