When it comes to financial scams, many people first think of induced transfers, online remittances, and fake platforms... But now there is another operation: inducing and promising the victim to hide gold in the belly of a fish, send it to a designated location, and get high returns. Behind this seemingly bizarre operation is a new type of fraud. It allows the parties not only not to feel cheated, but also to firmly believe that they have seized the "internal investment channel."
When online fraud is no longer just about clicking on a link and sending a sum of money, but is packaged as an ordinary purchase and delivery, the scam becomes more difficult to detect quickly. Why do these new financial scams target physical gold? What's the plot behind this?
In August this year, four pieces of gold jewelry were put into the mouths of two yellow croakers, with a total value of more than 35,000 yuan. They were packed together with 10 other ordinary yellow croakers and were ready to be sent from Pudong, Shanghai, in the name of fresh food packages.
Song Jiajun, a police officer at the Anti-Fraud Center of the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau: Ms. Bi from our Sixth Regiment Area met a so-called “financial guru” on a short video platform. Under the inducement of the other party, I downloaded an unfamiliar investment app. The scammer pretended to be a financial guru on the app, guided her to do tasks to make money, and showed her false profits on the fake platform.
The profit figures on the fake accounts continued to rise, which made Ms. Bi convinced of her profits. Subsequently, the customer service of the fake platform put forward a new request: buy gold offline, hide it in the belly of a yellow croaker, and recharge it to your online account by mail.
Song Jiajun: She had already bought yellow croaker at the vegetable market, stuffed the gold into the belly of the fish, and was about to mail it. Later, the police from our territorial police station and anti-fraud center came to dissuade her in time. She really felt that she had an inside investment channel, so she responded to the police exactly as the scammer taught her. After several hours of dissuasion, she finally said that the gold was transferred to the recharge platform according to customer service instructions.
Song Jiajun introduced that this is a new type of fraud method that uses physical objects such as gold to transfer and launder fraudulent funds.
Song Jiajun: This is the latest method of money laundering. Scammers guide them to use this kind of gold to deposit money, claiming that the queue for transfer is now crowded. You can use gold deposit or cash deposit, and the so-called fund specialist of the investment company will connect with you and meet you to pick it up or recharge to the platform by mail.
In addition to the belly of yellow croaker, it is understood that fraudsters will also instruct victims to hide gold in milk powder cans, air fryers, bacon, or wrap it in layers of clothing before sending it out.
Mr. Wang from Yuexi County, Anhui Province was attracted by an advertisement for getting rich with high returns. A person claiming to be a platform staff member told him that by investing only 50 grams of gold, he would not only be able to protect his capital and make a profit, but also get 80,000 yuan in principal and interest income, and he could also apply for 500,000 yuan in national poverty alleviation special funds.
Yan Wei, a police officer from the Telecommunications Cybercrime Squadron of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Yuexi County Public Security Bureau: The first time the victim went to a courier company to mail gold, the courier company rejected him on the grounds that the gold was a valuable item. The second time, he hid the gold in a milk powder can and sent the milk powder by mail.
In the end, the police spent three days traveling across the province to recover all the gold involved in the case mailed by Mr. Wang. The hiding medium is constantly changing in order to disguise the gold as ordinary items and escape fund tracking and delivery inspection. Chu Shaowu, an instructor of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Yuexi County Public Security Bureau, said that unlike traditional telecom fraud that directly induces transfers, the entire operation chain of the scammer is evading the monitoring and early warning of the anti-fraud system.
Chu Shaowu: Fund records can be found during online transfers. The anti-fraud system can detect abnormalities and provide timely warnings. It is also relatively easy to check the whereabouts of money and fix evidence. However, offline delivery such as sending cash or gold has no transfer record and cannot be detected by the system; the victim has been deeply brainwashed by the scammer, and it is difficult to dissuade the victim by calling the police to dissuade him; gold can be cashed out in time after being obtained, but it is difficult to trace the whereabouts of things, and it is even more difficult to collect evidence and help people recover their losses.
With the full implementation of the Anti-Telecommunications Network Fraud Law of the People's Republic of China, countermeasures such as inter-bank transfers and quick freezing of fraudulent funds have gradually matured. Gold has the characteristics of anonymity, tracelessness, and flexible realization, making it the main form of physical money laundering. According to statistics from the Joint Anti-Fraud Laboratory, 60% of such scams occur among people over the age of 35. The scammers require the victims to provide real money and have a certain amount of wealth accumulation. Xiao Xu, an expert at the Joint Anti-Fraud Laboratory, analyzed that the key to this method being effective lies in the control of people's hearts.
Xiao Xu: Different types of fraud actually take advantage of the different psychological needs of groups. Scammers first ask you to make a small investment or give you a small sweetener to gain your trust and attract you to continue. After you invest in it, this is the cost. With costs, dissonance arises. The manifestation of this imbalance is "what I do must be equal to what I am right". At this time, the liar will give you a seemingly reasonable reason, and you will convince yourself to continue to believe the liar and continue to invest.
Zhao Jingwu, associate professor at Beihang University School of Law, said that in some fraud cases, the victims are so convinced of the profit from financial management that they not only do not actively inform people around them about their gold purchases, but may even hide it from their family members. On the other hand, if the victim purchased gold from an offline physical store, it is difficult for the public security organs to assess whether it is a normal investment and financial management behavior or whether there is a possibility of subsequent physical transfer. Regulatory warnings are difficult to assess beforehand, and short video platforms also face challenges in controlling traffic information.
Zhao Jingwu: The main difficulty in regulatory early warning lies in the inability to effectively conduct prior assessment. Short video platform traffic is more of a management and control dilemma: on the one hand, some platforms may neglect to manage various traffic information contents within the platform; on the other hand, various financial investment video contents will attract users through free stock recommendations, fake profit-making screenshots, etc.; they will also use various obscure expressions to find ways to bypass the platform's internal supervision and attract users to other chat platforms.
Zhao Jingwu further analyzed that in this type of fraud crime chain, after the victim takes the initiative to mail the gold, it will be subsequently transported through layers of "collectors" dispersed across regions, and the gold will eventually be sold and cashed out, making recovery more difficult.
Zhao Jingwu: A "driver" who is responsible for transporting and obtaining physical objects such as gold. He acts as a middleman for fraud gangs to withdraw cash and transfer stolen goods. He helps transfer and launder stolen money to earn "errand fees". If there is an obvious division of labor and acceptance with upstream criminal actors, For online arrangements, his behavior constitutes the crime of fraud and is an accomplice; but if it only involves the transfer of stolen money and does not involve internal communication and division of labor, his behavior constitutes the crime of concealing and concealing criminal proceeds (i.e., the crime of concealing, concealing criminal proceeds, and criminal proceeds). The difficulty in recovering stolen goods is that the gold obtained may be quickly smelted and cannot be easily recovered based on serial numbers, purchase records, etc. In some cases, underground banks are also involved, causing gold to be transferred overseas through other methods such as Bitcoin. Once cross-border recovery of stolen goods is involved, the difficulty of recovering stolen goods rises sharply.
Xiao Xu, an expert at the Joint Anti-Fraud Laboratory, reminded that any investment behavior that requires cash to be delivered offline or gold to be mailed is a fraud. She emphasized that investments must be made through formal platforms, and do not click on unknown links or scan QR codes from unknown sources to download apps.
Xiao Xu: This "master" said "guaranteed profit without losing money", which is actually a very core loophole. The form of the investment platform he gives you, as long as it gives you links and installation packages, is not a formal investment platform. Only with the fake App can he control and modify data in the background. When facing abnormal transactions, you should calmly analyze and seek third-party verification, and promptly contact the police, relatives, friends, or official channels to identify potential risks.
Producer丨Liu Li
Reporters丨Yu Xiang, Liang Mingxing, Sun Xin
