Recently, car owners in many places have received news that the vehicles they purchased have been recalled by manufacturers. Criminals obtained the vehicle license plate number and contact information through illegal channels, and sent fake "recall claim settlement" text message notifications through private mobile phone numbers, or made direct calls to commit fraud.
Criminals claim to be the manufacturer and can accurately report the model and frame number. They use "emergency recall for air bag hazards" or similar excuses to trick car owners into clicking on the link, falsely claiming that they can apply for a claim, and promising to "pick up the car at their doorstep."
Ms. Yuan, a car owner in Dali, Yunnan, told reporters that at first she believed it was true, but after checking, she learned that it was a fraudulent text message.
Ms. Yuan: "He has all my information, and he sent it to my mobile phone number. He wrote out my license plate number and made it very clear. He also attached a picture and stamped it. It should be a so-called official website file created by him. When we went to confirm it, we found that the URL he gave was different from the official URL."
The reporter saw on a social platform that car owners in many places have received such messages, and some car owners even received documents pretending to be from a national ministry, which also stated the reasons for the recall, claims applications, etc. The reporter also noticed that this large-scale "vehicle recall" fraud information involves many mainstream car brands.
At present, many car companies involved have issued statements. This is false information. Do not be fooled! The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security and the Shenzhen Anti-Fraud Center also issued special reminders, saying that "entrapment fraud" using real car recall information has appeared in many places recently. Scammers obtained the vehicle license plate number and contact information through illegal channels and sent fake "recall claim" notices. If you are low on vigilance, once you click on the link or scan the code and fill in the bank card number and verification code as prompted, your account information will be stolen.
Li Hui, an automotive industry insider in Shanghai, told reporters that this false recall involves many well-known car companies, and citizens’ personal information is suspected to have been leaked in batches. The black and gray industrial chain behind it should attract attention.
Li Hui: "How did they obtain this information about car owners? In today's Internet environment, everyone will leave their own information in many places. Through the correlation and matching of these data between different systems, it is easy to locate specific individuals. There are some people who may be engaged in gray industries in this area."
Zhu Xichan, a professor at Tongji University's School of Automotive and director of the Automotive Safety Technology Research Institute, said that false recalls involving multiple car brands are typical telecommunications fraud.
Zhu Xichan: "If you want to know the accurate information about car defect recalls, you can learn it from the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation. Each car has a VIN number on the lower part of the front windshield, which is similar to our people's ID cards. Each car has a unique number. Enter the VIN number of the vehicle and you can check the identity of your own vehicle. It is not within the scope of the recall. So if you receive similar information, open the official website of the Defective Product Recall Management Center of the State Administration for Market Regulation and see if there is recall information for your model. If there is recall information for your model, enter the VIN number of your car to check whether the car is within the recall scope of this defect. "
Li Huaisheng, a professor at the School of Criminal Justice of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that car recall scams that have appeared in many places have been suspected of infringing on citizens' personal information.
Li Huaisheng: "The suspect can accurately report the license plate number, model, frame number and contact information, indicating that the information has been leaked from a certain link and used to commit precise fraud. From a criminal law perspective, the leakage itself is most likely to involve the crime of infringement of citizens' personal information. Vehicle information, car owner contact information All personal information belongs to citizens. If it is sold or provided in violation of national regulations and meets the "serious circumstances" standard stipulated in judicial interpretations, such as more than 50 pieces of whereabouts and property information, more than 5,000 pieces of other information, or illegal gains of more than 5,000 yuan, it constitutes a crime. "
Li Huaisheng also said that if insiders of car companies, 4S stores, insurance companies or platforms take advantage of their positions to leak information, the threshold for conviction will be halved and severe penalties will be imposed. If the leak is obtained through technical means such as hacking and credential stuffing, it may also constitute the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data.
Li Huaisheng: "What's more critical is the downstream behavior. The suspect uses this information to carry out entrapment fraud, inducing car owners to click on links, fill in verification codes, and start screen sharing to transfer funds. This is already suspected of fraud. If the leaker knows that the information will be used for fraud and still provides it, it may constitute an accomplice in fraud. Or the crime of assisting information network criminal activities. In reality, the difficulty in criminal investigation is that it is difficult to identify the source of the leak, and the information changes hands many times in the black industry chain. There are also certain difficulties in proving causality. Small and scattered leaks often fail to meet the standards for filing a case, and more civil or administrative remedies are needed. "
The police reminded that when faced with such information, please keep three points in mind: First, do not click, scan, or answer unfamiliar links, QR codes, or unknown phone calls. The second is to verify the recall information. Please directly call the 4S store or log in to the official app of the car company. Third, for all formal claims, there is no need to provide bank card passwords or SMS verification codes.
Reporter Guan Xin
