Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 14 th Question: Why can you cheat billions of dollars by making a phone call? — — Taiwan Province telecom fraud suspects reveal fraud shady.
Xinhua news agency reporter
Recently, 77 suspects of telecom fraud were repatriated to Chinese mainland, including 32 from mainland China and 45 from Taiwan Province. This is the first time that China has brought back a telecom fraud suspect from Africa on a large scale.
Why are criminal dens located in distant Africa? How do criminal suspects commit telecom fraud on Chinese mainland people "from a distance"? How do a large number of fraud gangs divide their work and cooperate? What kind of fraud tricks are behind their repeated success and taking away hundreds of millions of stolen money?
On the 14th, with the approval of the case-handling organ, the reporter interviewed the police handling the case and some telecom fraud suspects in custody.
Deceptions are interlocking, and the spoils are divided according to the "basic salary" and "commission"
The suspect, Jane, born in 1992, is from Taoyuan, Taiwan Province, and came to Kenya in October 2014 through a friend, Ayao.
"Yao arranged for me to go to Jimmy’s place and let me pretend to be a policeman and call to cheat money." Jane confessed that the whole gang lived in the villa rented by Jimmy (one of the suspects, responsible for outreach, translation, transportation, etc.). According to the different division of labor, the "first line" lives on the first floor, and the "second line" and "third line" live on the second floor; The boss "Pangcai" lives alone in a room on the first floor. Jane is a "second line".
The so-called "first line", "second line" and "third line", Jane further introduced: "first line" about 10 people, in the first floor living room to answer the "customer" (victim) phone. "They are all landlines, and there are about a dozen telephones, one for each person; In addition, there is a person who specializes in operating computers. "
The "second-line" people are all on the second floor, and there are also 10 people in four or five rooms, each with two landlines. There are fewer people on the "third line", and they are also on the second floor, making phone calls in one room.
So, how did this gang commit fraud?
According to the police investigating the case, first of all, the person operating the computer in the "first line" sent a group call service to the mainland according to the telephone number given by the boss. "The mainland people received a voice packet saying that there was something wrong with your medical insurance card. Please press 9 for more information."
If the victims press the "9" key, the phone will be connected to the "front line" person. “‘ First line ’ Some people pretend to be medical insurance personnel, take customers’ identity information in the name of inquiry, and tell customers that their information has been stolen. ‘ First line ’ They all speak according to the contents of the speech list, and then transfer the call to us ‘ Second line ’ At the same time, people sent a note with the customer’s name and ID number on it. " Jane confessed.
"Our second-line people pretend to be police officers of Chaoyang Branch of Beijing Public Security Bureau or Criminal Investigation Team of Shunyi Branch, and accept the customer’s report. After the customer has finished speaking, we will ask them to wait and call them back later." Jane confessed, "After hanging up, we used the landline to call the customer back, pretending to be a police officer of the criminal investigation team, and then telling the customer according to the contents of the call sheet that their identity information was stolen and suspected of money laundering, and asked the customer to provide name, family situation, occupation, income and other information, as well as bank accounts they often use."
In order to convince the victims, fraud gangs will also play pre-recorded background sounds when making phone calls, such as hospitals, public security bureaus and other scenes; At the same time, we also use the number change software, which can display the incoming call as the phone number of any public security organ in mainland China.
"We asked the customer to dial 114 to check whether the number displayed on the mobile phone is the phone number of the Public Security Bureau. We will give him a minute to check the time, and then dial it again. " Jane said that they will further ask the victim’s account balance. If it is small, the second line will directly trick the other party into transferring money and remittance; If the amount is large, the call will be transferred to the "third line", and the person from the "third line" will pretend to be the head of the financial crime department and continue to talk to the victim about remittance and transfer.
One of the "three lines", the suspect Xu confessed, "We know which bank the customer uses to transfer money when talking to the customer, so we will ask the boss for the account number of which bank. The other party is eager to prove innocence to us, and we will provide one ‘ Security account number ’ Let the other party transfer the money to this account, which will be inquired by our financial crime department and transferred by ATM according to our instructions on the phone. "
According to the police investigating the case, the "third line" has the highest technical content in the whole criminal chain, and has clever deception, which can cope with various problems and doubts of the victims. Sometimes, for a "big order", the boss will even invite an "excellent" "third line" to play, with the ultimate goal of tricking the victim into remitting money into a designated bank account.
How do criminal suspects divide the stolen goods?
According to reports, there is a whiteboard in the living room on the first and second floors. Who negotiated the list and which account received the money will be recorded on the whiteboard. The boss pays the bill once a month, and the "first line" takes "basic salary+commission", with a basic salary of 5,000 yuan, and the commission is generally 3% of the amount of each fraud; "Second-line" only has "commission", which is 4%— 5%； The "third line" with the highest "technology" content can get 8%.
The backbone of gang bosses with higher degree of specialization are all from Taiwan Province.
According to the police investigating the case, in many telecom fraud gangs, the bosses and backbones are all from Taiwan Province, as are the fraud gangs where Jane and Xu are located — — The bosses "Pangcai", "Second Line" and "Third Line" are all from Taiwan Province, and the script "Speech Script" is also written by Taiwan Province people. The "first line" is dominated by mainlanders with little fraud experience.
When recruiting personnel, the boss "Fat Wealth" especially pays attention to those who have fraud experience and criminal record, and tries every means to attract them. Xu is one of them. As soon as he arrived in Kenya, he was entrusted with the "third-line" responsibility and pretended to be the "Chief of the Financial Crimes Section".
"I am familiar with the process of telecom fraud, so Pangcai found me and asked me to join him ‘ Start work ’ 。” Xu, a 37-year-old native of Taichung, Taiwan Province, was sentenced to 7 months’ imprisonment by Taichung City Court in 2010 for fraud, and was released after serving his sentence. At the end of July 2014, he was recruited to Kenya by "Pangcai" and was arrested and detained by local law enforcement agencies in November of that year on suspicion of committing crimes. On April 9 this year, Xu was sent back to Chinese mainland.
Jane also has a criminal record. She fought and took drugs since she was a child. She dropped out of high school and was unemployed. She was dealt with by the Taiwan Province police for taking K powder, claiming that she was still wanted by the Taiwan Province police. According to his confession, as soon as he arrived in Kenya, the boss sent him a "speech sheet" to learn from it and recite it over and over again, so that he could answer questions when committing fraud.
Within the gang, there is not only a clear division of labor, but also very strict management. In order to ensure that all members concentrate on investment and improve the success rate of fraud, there are still strict boundaries between the "lines". “‘ First line ’ ‘ Second line ’ When talking about the list, no one else can be near; ‘ Third line ’ They are all in the same house, and no one can go in except the boss. " Jane said.
According to another introduction, the boss’s "fat money" generally pays a salary in advance and promises a high salary in order to win people’s confidence. For example, "Pangcai" once lent more than NT$ 100,000 to Xu by way of advance, which made Xu, who had a difficult family, grateful and worked hard for him. However, after the crime of fraud is successful, "Fat Wealth" always refuses to pay wages for various reasons.
According to the police investigating the case, Taiwan Province Telecom’s fraud started earlier, and the main target of fraud was the people of Taiwan Province. With Taiwan Province stepping up anti-fraud propaganda, there is no market for fraud. Around 2002, telecom fraud gangs, which were difficult to establish themselves in Taiwan Province, set their sights on the mainland and began to move to Fujian and other places, mainly to defraud the mainland people.
Zhang Jun, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, said that another reason why Taiwan Province Telecom’s fraud crimes are developed is that they can constantly update their scripts, among which the scripts of the Public Prosecution Law are "classic" and have been tried and tested on the grounds that victims’ accounts are involved in criminal cases.
"Some parts of the front line may change, such as pretending to be medical insurance, post office, express delivery, gehuayouxian, etc., but then they will still use the people’s awe and trust in the public security law to pretend to be the staff of the public security organs and complete the fraud process." Zhang Jun said. One of the latest fraud methods is to open a "cottage website" of Chinese mainland judicial organs, make a "wanted order" based on the identity information and photos provided by the victims, hang it online, and send the link to the victims; If the victim is a middle-aged and elderly person who can’t surf the Internet, he will send a "wanted order" by fax, so that the victim can believe it and fall into a trap when he is surprised and afraid.
In April 2009, the two sides signed the Agreement on Combating Crimes and Mutual Legal Assistance across the Taiwan Strait, which intensified the joint crackdown on telecom fraud. Fraud gangs then moved to Southeast Asia, Africa, Oceania and other countries, and some gangs also moved to the Russian Far East to implement cross-border telecom fraud.
"The dens of fraud are getting farther and farther away. Like this Kenyan case, they mainly consider staying away from Chinese mainland, making it more difficult to arrest, so as to escape the blow. But no matter how far the suspect runs, we have the confidence and ability to arrest him. " Zhang Jun said.
"Things have developed to this day, all of which are my own self-inflicted, all of which are my retribution, but the deceived mainland people must be more sad. I say sorry to these mainland people, and I am willing to accept legal sanctions. I will definitely turn over a new leaf in the future, and I will never do bad things again. If I have the opportunity, I will definitely engage in legitimate work. " Xu deeply repented.
Jane also expressed regret: "I knew from the beginning that I was going to defraud the mainland people. Fraud is a wrong act, an unnatural thing, and there will be karma. I want to sincerely apologize to the people who have been deceived in the mainland. I am willing to accept legal sanctions and hope to be treated leniently. "
Every year, 10 billion yuan is defrauded, and Taiwan’ s crackdown needs to be intensified.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Public Security, telecom fraud crimes have intensified in recent years, and the number of cases has increased by 20% to 30% annually. Among them, the telecom fraud criminal group headed by Taiwan Province criminal suspects set up fraud dens in Southeast Asia, Africa, Oceania and other countries, recruited telephone operators, and pretended to be the mainland public security organs to madly commit telecom fraud to the mainland people. The harm was very serious and the people hated it. According to statistics, the losses of fraud cases committed by telecom fraud criminal gangs with Taiwan Province as the backbone account for more than 50% of the total losses of telecom fraud cases, and the major cases of more than 10 million yuan are basically committed by Taiwan Province telecom fraud group. For example, on December 29th, 2015, Yang, the cashier of the Construction Bureau of Duyun Economic Development Zone in Guizhou, was cheated by Taiwan Province Telecom Fraud Group for 117 million yuan.
In view of the grim situation of telecom fraud related to Chinese mainland, the public security organs in have always maintained a high-pressure and severe crackdown situation, and have continued to organize crackdown operations, and joined hands with the Taiwan Province police to carry out police law enforcement cooperation. Since 2011, the police on both sides of the Taiwan Straits have joined hands to go to Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and other countries, and organized several transnational and cross-strait simultaneous arrests, arresting more than 7,700 telecom fraud suspects, including more than 4,600 suspects from Taiwan Province.
However, due to the fact that Taiwan Province’s laws impose a lighter sentence on telecom fraud crimes, and the standards of evidence identification are quite different from those in mainland China, many criminal suspects can’t be convicted or have a lighter sentence for a felony, and less than 10% of them are sentenced. In August 2013, 21 gang leaders, including suspects Lin Minghao, Liang Jiabi and Wu Hanjie, were captured by Beijing public security organs in Cambodia and handed over to Taiwan Province police. In 2015, they appeared in Indonesia, Cambodia, Australia and other countries to open fraud dens, recruit soldiers and continue to commit crimes.
Statistics show that every year, more than 10 billion yuan of telecom fraud money is swept from the mainland to Taiwan Province by swindlers. Although the mainland public security organs have taken various measures to recover it, they have only recovered 207,000 yuan from Taiwan Province.
Due to Taiwan’s ineffective crackdown and the difficulty in recovering the stolen money, the arrogance and criminal desire of swindlers have been encouraged, which has led to repeated attacks by telecom fraud criminal gangs with Taiwan Province as the backbone, hiding overseas and committing crimes crazily, causing huge economic losses to mainland people. Criminals in Taiwan Province used the money they cheated to buy luxury houses and luxury cars, went to casinos to gamble and splurge, and publicly clamored that they would "cheat all the mainland’s money". According to the data from Taiwan Province, there are nearly 100,000 people in Taiwan Province who make a living by committing telecommunication fraud.
"The mainland has handed over a large number of Taiwan Province telecom fraud suspects to Taiwan Province, but the Taiwan side did not severely punish them, but sentenced them lightly or even acquitted them, which led to the suspects’ aggravation and became recidivists and recidivists. The amount of fraud was huge, and mainland residents and enterprises suffered serious losses. If this momentum cannot be stopped in time, the consequences will be unimaginable. " Liu Huawen, assistant to the director of the Institute of International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that cross-strait cooperation to combat telecom fraud needs to be strengthened, and hopes that Taiwan Province will attach great importance to it.
"Taiwan Province has not formulated criminal law provisions specifically for telecom fraud, but treats telecom fraud as a general fraud, with a low sentence, insufficient economic sanctions, lax legislation and too light punishment." Fan Chongyi, a professor at the Institute of Litigation Law of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that "Taiwan Province should intensify the crackdown on telecom fraud through legislation, and improve the determination of charges, methods of crackdown, and punishment rules so that criminals can get the punishment they deserve."