After the international package is sent out, "little international students" receive fraud information

Expert: strengthen international cooperation to cut off the interest chain of domestic and foreign wire fraud crimes

Mr. Wang, from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, recently sent a package to the child who had just gone to Australia to study by SF Express. Only three days later, the child received a message saying "The address is incorrect, and your package delivery has been suspended". Because he did not receive the package, the child clicked the link on the message without thinking and left a series of personal information

Nightmares follow. The swindlers intimidated Mr. Wang's children for more than two months and instigated them to ask their parents for huge amounts of money. Mr. Wang became alert and realized that the child might be cheated, so he reported the case to the domestic police. The police found that Mr. Wang's children encountered the current rampant "international package+telecom network fraud".

In the context of the continuous deepening of the nationwide fight against and control of telecommunications network fraud crimes, the frequent occurrence of electronic fraud cases against overseas Chinese students, especially "small overseas students", has become a difficult and painful point in combating such crimes. What is the formula for such wire fraud cases? How to solve the problem? The reporter of the Legal Daily interviewed this.

  The fraud dens are located overseas

Refurbishment is impossible to prevent

Recently, the reporter interviewed the Jiangsu police and learned about the details of two cases of electronic fraud involving detained students.

In one case, the victim of criminal brainwashing was eager to get rid of "criminal suspicion", worried about deportation and cross-border arrest, and was coerced into a cabin on Tasmania Island, Australia. He took a video of being "kidnapped" and sent it to his father through his social account, Ask for a huge "ransom" of more than 15 million yuan.

In another new case, the injured student Wang received a phone call claiming to be the "Department of Health of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia", saying that his identity information might be stolen, and transferred the call to the false "Shanghai Public Security Bureau". On the phone, the fraudster pretended to be a police officer who lied that Wang was involved in an economic case and provided a false arrest execution document. The foreign student was tricked by the other party to ask his family to transfer more than 1.8 million yuan to him on the ground that "the school needs an asset certificate", and then transferred to the "security account" provided by the swindler through online banking. Not long after the other party lost contact, the student learned that he was cheated.

"The electronic fraud cases against Chinese students continue to be technically renovated, and their bewilderment and concealment continue to increase. As more than 90% of the fraud dens are located overseas, they are typical transnational organized crimes and also typical non-contact crimes, bringing great challenges to the detection of cases." Zhang Wei, head of the Anti fraud Detachment of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, introduced.

Zhang Wei said that some overseas students have no concept of the way the public security organs, procuratorates and law enforcement agencies handle cases after they are separated from the original social environment and parental protection. Once cheated, the loss is often huge. The most urgent and direct way to reduce the harm of this kind of crime is to let the majority of overseas students fully understand the characteristics and harm of electronic fraud, form a strong anti electronic fraud awareness, and keep alert to all kinds of strange phones and unknown network links.

  The routine of setting traps layer by layer is quite deep

Someone has suffered a second fraud

The reporter combed the characteristics of several cases of overseas students' electronic fraud and found that such criminal routines mainly included four steps:

Step 1: The fraudster counterfeits "a certain express company", "a certain bank" or "embassy" and sends SMS links to obtain the personal information of the international students, and then calls the international students in the name of "a certain public security bureau" to inform them that they are suspected of transnational money laundering, international financial fraud, major economic crimes and other cases that have faced criminal investigation and will be "deported" at any time Or "extradite to China".

Step 2: The fraudsters send the so-called criminal case filing decision, arrest certificate, detention certificate or bail waiting certificate of a certain public security department (public security bureau) through the network P diagram, and send false network links, so that the international students can "witness" that they have been involved in the case and are wanted by the police. After the international students are intimidated, they request to keep the criminal case confidential, Sign a "Confidentiality Agreement", or use the forged "Confidentiality Law" and "Confidentiality Order" to require the victim not to tell his family, teachers, classmates and friends, so as to prepare for subsequent mental control and brainwashing.

Step 3: The fraudster will ask the victim to download the unknown software, ask him to report his whereabouts at any time through the software, such as sending messages, making phone calls and videos, uploading chat records with parents, and opening the camera to facilitate "investigation and evidence collection" within weeks or months. During this period, they pretended to be the police and the chief procurator of the special case team, and took turns to intimidate and induce the victims, so that the victims believed in their identity and listened to their demands.

Step 4: Induce the victim to transfer money. Generally, victims will be asked to provide asset credit certificates, deposit certificates, etc., to trick parents into remitting huge amounts of money to their children's accounts, and then, under the guise of the so-called "safe account", to trick foreign students into transferring money to "prove their innocence". Some even ask the injured students to ask their parents for huge amounts of money for various urgent reasons, such as being detained by local law enforcement agencies, being kidnapped, etc. The parents have to transfer the money out because they are suffering from asymmetric information and cannot contact their children in time to master the true information.

"Criminals obtain the victim's personal information through illegal channels, including mobile phone numbers, e-mail addresses, personal photos and even identity cards, and may sell it to other fraud gangs after the fraud is completed to help recover losses and other reasons for the second fraud." Geng Mingning, deputy head of the Anti fraud Detachment of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, said, Some victims hope to help recover their losses by searching for "lawyers" and "cyber police" on the Internet, thus falling into the trap of criminals and encountering telecom network fraud again.

  Accurately publicize anti fraud knowledge

Expose the core crime techniques

The cross-border financial service center of the business department of Bank of China Jiangsu Branch recently held an offline training activity. Ma Xuan, the anti fraud police in Nanjing, made a speech and more than 120 new students and parents attended.

According to Ma Xuan, in addition to posing as the "Public Security Law" to commit transnational electronic fraud against international students, fake online shopping and online dating are also the current types of crimes against student groups. The fraudsters often use the so-called "having special channels", "enjoying ultra-low prices", "low price transfer", "overseas purchase" and other means to lure students. After the victim makes the payment, he or she will be required to transfer and remit money for the reason of paying additional customs duties, transaction taxes, service fees, etc. "For example, the fraud method of luring foreign students to buy low-cost tickets is particularly easy to get hold of, which is confusing and highly hidden. Therefore, we recommend that you use the official App and other inherent channels to consume, and never listen to others' introduction to download and use unknown software."

"International students should not provide any account number, password, including verification code, etc. to an unrelated third party. Most fraudsters use the number tampered with by the 'number changing software' to dial students through the internet phone," Ma Xuan said, "We must remember that the police will not inform you of a crime by phone, will not transfer the phone, will not require you to keep confidential with your family, will not require you to report your whereabouts every day, will not send a 'wanted warrant' or an 'arrest warrant' through your social account, and will not require you to check the authenticity of your phone number."

The reporter noticed that the anti fraud propaganda aimed at the group of overseas students has become more and more accurate. By promoting the anti fraud propaganda of "prevention first", the Nanjing public security organ has sent 160000 prompt messages to overseas students and parents since 2023, exposing the core crime tactics of the fraudsters, and also launched a database of special materials such as "ten high incidence cases", The Anti fraud Publicity Manual of Nanjing Police (2023 University Edition) was prepared, covering 51 colleges and universities in the city. Since 2024, the number of telemarketing cases of Nanjing international students has dropped by 72.7% month on month.

Judging from the cases in Jiangsu Province, at present, the proportion of overseas students' wire fraud cases is relatively large in Britain and Australia, followed by Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada and other countries.

Telefraud fraud dens are mostly hiding in Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines. At present, they have spread to countries in Europe and the Middle East, such as Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and African countries. It is difficult to investigate, collect evidence, and land arrest.

Chinese consulates abroad pay close attention to this. On April 24, the official WeChat of the Chinese Consulate General in Melbourne, Australia, released an exchange activity of receiving insurance with the theme of anti fraud propaganda. Through explaining and analyzing the real cases of telecommunication fraud of overseas students, the Chinese Consulate General publicized anti fraud knowledge face to face, and more than 200 Chinese "young overseas students" participated in the on-site interaction.

  Combine attack and defense to form resultant force

Source control and strengthening prevention

The reporter noted that from January to April 2024, the number of telemarketing police cases in Nanjing fell by 12.4% year on year, the number of criminal cases registered fell by 24.8% year on year, and the number of case losses fell by 31% year on year. At the same time, the number of detected cases of wire fraud increased by 50.95% year on year, the number of people suspected of being involved in fraud abroad increased by 260% year on year, and the amount of returned funds from fraud increased by 162.97% year on year. Since this year alone, 15000 people have been successfully prevented from being cheated, and more than 40 million yuan of economic losses have been avoided.

It is understood that the frequent occurrence of overseas students' electronic fraud cases is a new situation against the background of the overall downward trend of electronic fraud alarm.

"The fraudsters are professional, so the police should also fight against" professional "and" team fight against gangs "by combining forces. At the same time, they should strengthen systematic governance, pay attention to source governance and source prevention." Chang Heping, deputy mayor of Nanjing, deputy director of Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department and director of Nanjing Public Security Bureau, said in an interview that for special groups such as overseas students, We must start with schools, training institutions, etc., and strive to make every child and parent familiar with anti fraud knowledge, keep a high degree of vigilance against all kinds of fraud, and form the anti fraud joint force of the whole society to "attack and prevent simultaneously".

What are the weak links in the current anti fraud work? The reporter found in the interview that in the cases of overseas students' wire fraud, not only did they forge the SMS links sent by foreign banks to obtain the personal information of overseas students, but also used the security free function of credit cards to cause information leakage to be "stolen". The quality of cross-border financial services for overseas students needs to be improved urgently.

In addition, several cases show that the personal information leakage caused by the "real name face sheet" of international express has become a key loophole in the crime chain of fraud gangs. The Anti fraud Detachment of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau said that it would strengthen communication and cooperation in the postal express industry, introduce innovative measures, and closely guard against and crack down on information leakage of express customers.

"The domestic express business adopts the real name system to receive and send, and has fully implemented the 'privacy face sheet', that is, the key personal information of users on the face sheet is blurred, but cross-border express has not taken the 'privacy face sheet' measure for a variety of reasons." Geng Mingning, deputy head of the anti fraud detachment of Nanjing Public Security Bureau, suggested that, in view of the loopholes in the protection of personal information of cross-border express packages, Relevant departments must pay close attention to it.

The reporter noticed that the fraudsters would also exercise mental control over "young overseas students", causing serious psychological harm to them. In a case of wire fraud, "young overseas students" were controlled by remote mind control for more than a year, and the amount of money cheated reached more than 2 million yuan.

"There is a 'crime of coercion' in foreign countries, but there is no such crime in China's criminal law at present." Li Lizhong, associate professor of the Law School of Renmin University of China, analyzed that Article 293 of the criminal law stipulates the crime of provocation and trouble making, and those who chase, intercept, abuse and intimidate others, if the circumstances are flagrant, will be convicted and punished as the crime of provocation and trouble making, but it is a loophole in the criminal law to simply "intimidate" specific individuals, It is suggested to add "coercion crime" to punish severely.

"The judicial authorities should increase the compensation for mental damage for such crimes, and consider it as an aggravating circumstance for sentencing." Li Lizhong suggested that we should continue to increase the depth and breadth of international law enforcement and judicial cooperation, solve the problem of technical evidence collection, and increase the fight against upstream and downstream crimes such as infringement of citizens' personal information and money laundering according to law, We will resolutely cut off the domestic and overseas interest chain of fraud criminals.

Some insiders also pointed out that study abroad intermediaries should also fulfill the obligation to protect students' personal information and avoid information disclosure of students and parents. (Reporter Ding Guofeng)