The positions looked real, the process looked real, and the resumes submitted were even more real. However, these resumes were not used by the recruiting companies as a basis for selection, but became a tool for them to make money. Since May 2024, a criminal gang headed by Lin Moufeng has sold more than 870,000 job seeker information overseas in the name of "recruitment", involving more than 7.46 million yuan.
21 defendants were sentenced and a criminal incidental civil public interest litigation was filed. The Supreme People's Procuratorate released this case as a typical case and issued a warning.
Specially register a business account, collect resumes and collect information
In May 2024, Lin Moufeng discovered a so-called "money path" during a corporate recruitment: applicants' information can be sold overseas. He registered a corporate account on an online recruitment platform, posted false recruitment information, collected resumes, and collected information. However, the number of accounts a business can obtain is limited, and they frequently violate platform rules and are banned. So he started recruiting people to "form a team."
Su Junjun, deputy director of the First Prosecution Department of the People's Procuratorate of Taijiang District, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province: The defendant Lin Moufeng divided the people into two groups. The front end is the "drainage team". The task is to pretend to be a job seeker, contact the human resources staff of other companies, and promise benefits so that the other party can use their company account to illegally obtain the personal information of the applicants. The back-end is the "data team", which is responsible for collecting citizens' personal information templates provided by the human resources departments of these bought companies, and centrally summarizing and organizing the recovered information. Finally, Lin Moufeng sold this information abroad for profit through the Internet.
870,000 pieces of information sold for more than 7.46 million yuan
According to statistics, the gang formed by Lin Moufeng illegally obtained and sold more than 870,000 pieces of citizens' personal information. In order to avoid punishment, all illegal gains obtained from selling information were settled in virtual currency, and then converted into RMB by Ning, the defendant in this case. The procuratorate recommended that the investigative agency extract several types of key evidence: server data, electronic transaction records, chat records of people involved in the case, and settlement vouchers. The amount involved was finally determined to be more than 7.46 million yuan.
Su Junjun: The information sold by the defendant is the content on the applicant's resume: who he is, how to contact him, and what he has done. Once information flows overseas, it often becomes the "raw material" for telecommunications network fraud. This is not an ordinary "information leak", but a complete black industry chain: the recruitment platform is the entrance, the corporate account is the tool, and the staff of the company's human resources management department are internal agents.
21 people were sentenced and 2 people were sentenced to pay compensation for public damage.
From October 2025 to February 2026, the Taijiang District Procuratorate successively filed public prosecutions: Lin Moufeng and other 20 people committed the crime of infringing on citizens’ personal information, and Ning committed the crime of assisting information network criminal activities. The court sentenced Lin Moufeng and 21 others to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from five years and three months to six months, criminal detention, and fines for the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information and assisting information network criminal activities. At the same time, he was ordered to bear civil responsibilities such as paying compensation for public welfare damages and making an apology. The judgment has taken effect.
Chen Qin, director of the Fifth Prosecution Department of the Taijiang District People's Procuratorate of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province: Lin Moufeng and others illegally obtained the personal information of job applicants, infringing on the personal information security and life peace of many unspecified job seekers, and triggering crimes such as telecommunications and network fraud, causing damage to national and public interests. In accordance with Article 70 of the Personal Information Protection Law, we filed a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit against Lin Moufeng and two others. The court adopted our opinion and ordered the defendant in the incidental civil public interest lawsuit to delete all documents and materials involving infringement of other citizens' personal information in this case, publicly apologize to the public on national news media, and pay public welfare damages of 4 million yuan and 10,000 yuan respectively.
Judiciary agencies and the media have frequently issued warnings about guarding against high-paying online recruitment traps. Yu Lili, a fourth-level senior prosecutor in the First Procuratorate of the Fujian Provincial People's Procuratorate, said that the details exposed in this case reflect a new trend in the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information.
Yu Lili: This case has uncovered a hidden illegal industry path. Applicants submit resumes with little defense. Some people use recruitment as a guise to obtain and sell application information without consent, destroying the foundation of trust in the employment field. Staff of the enterprise's human resources management department should take this case as a lesson and remember that recruitment authority is for the convenience of performing duties, not private resources. Abusing authority to sell job seeker information is an accomplice in the black and gray industrial chain and must be held accountable. While severely punishing crimes, we should compensate for losses, apologize, and delete data to repair public welfare damage. Criminal and public interest litigation work in the same direction to achieve dual regulations.
Mou Qi, a first-level senior prosecutor assistant in the Public Interest Litigation Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, also made suggestions to job seekers and recruitment platforms.
Mou Qi: We recommend that job seekers carefully check the company's certification and authorization, and do not hand over all their ID numbers, bank card numbers, and residential addresses; when receiving targeted sales or fraud calls, be careful of information being resold and report it when necessary. For the platform, we recommend that you use it for qualification review, export monitoring, download interception, and account ban linkage. Don’t wait until something goes wrong to say “I’m just an intermediary.” You can’t pay too much attention to issues involving citizens’ personal information.
