□ Tian Yuying
In recent years, the police jointly with all sectors of society to carry out various forms of anti-fraud propaganda activities, the people’s anti-fraud awareness has been greatly increased. However, some criminals also “keep up with the trend of The Times”, and Internet fraud methods emerge one after another. In the name of “blockchain”, they carry out “virtual currency” related business activities, and once again reach out to the people’s purse.
Stay away from virtual currencies and keep your money safe
On December 26, 2021, Mr. F’s account was abnormal and unable to conduct normal transactions. The account was controlled as “only receiving but not paying”. Mr. F works in an Internet company, and the company’s customers are all network customers with a wide range of customer groups. After Mr. F’s account was set as no payment but collection, he went to the branch of A bank to apply for lifting the control. After the supervisor of the branch of A checked the account transaction flow in recent months and within half a year, he found that the transaction flow in recent months was normal, and he asked the customer to explain the flow and use of funds in the past six months. Mr. F claimed that he used to play online games to recharge, buy and sell online game character equipment, and could not provide vouchers and auxiliary explanatory materials. Therefore, Branch A did not release the control of Mr. F’s account. On February 10, 2022, Mr. F made complaint feedback to A branch through the Black Cat complaint platform.
After verification, Mr. F opened A debit card in A branch in 2018, and the transaction flow was normal. No centralized transfer or decentralized transfer or centralized transfer was found. However, from December 12, 2021 to December 14, 2021, Jinan Criminal Investigation Brigade made an emergency stop of payment for Mr. F’s account for 48 hours, and on December 26, the customer’s bank card was automatically turned into an abnormal customer, and the control measures were upgraded to no collection or payment.
On February 15, 2022, Branch A contacted Mr. F by phone to further verify and communicate with him about the bank card use process. In the communication, I learned that Mr. F had transactions of virtual currency online, and some account information was not clear. He made transactions directly after his friends placed orders for virtual currency online, so he could not make clear some transactions in his account. After further investigation by the bank staff, Mr. F’s friend informed him that the virtual currency was only issued abroad, and the virtual currency investment in China could only be purchased privately through internal channels. He could transfer the money to him and then operate it on his behalf, and the profit and loss data could be checked on the platform. When Mr. F checked the platform, it showed that he had earned 10,000 dollars. That evening, his friend transferred 7,000 dollars to Mr. F, explaining that he would charge a 30% commission for withdrawing the money. The balance of Mr. F’s platform account was always in the profitable state every day. Mr. F felt that the profit was considerable, so he increased his investment. Subsequently, Mr. F transferred and remitted money to his friend for many times. But he didn’t withdraw money because he felt the fees were too high. A bank employee said that virtual currency is prohibited by the state. Since some transactions are not clear, the control cannot be lifted. After being reminded by the staff, when Mr. F wanted to withdraw the virtual currency on the platform, he found that he could not log in to the platform and did not reply to his friend. Fang found that he had been cheated. As of May 2022, Mr. F’s cheated funds have not been recovered, and his deposit in Bank A has been frozen.
Be wary of various forms of virtual currency scams
The rapid development of the Internet has spawned a lot of uncontrollable products, of which virtual currency is one. However, compared with real currency, virtual currency has no credit support and no stable price. As an investment, it is highly risky and easy to be used by speculators to engage in speculation or even illegal activities. Virtual currency scams are generally fraudulent criminal acts carried out by virtual currency investment for gimmicks. Virtual currency fraud gangs take advantage of the public’s desire to obtain high investment returns and cooperate with various illegal online trading platforms to harvest users. Common scams involving virtual currencies are:
One is small cash to sweet, large top-up to cheat you money. Criminals set up online fake trading platforms to gain the trust of investors through small transactions in the early stage and attract investors to enter the market. In the later stage, they refuse to withdraw large amounts of cash for various reasons, and make investors transfer funds into designated accounts through intimidation and induction to commit fraud.
Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities, and relevant civil and legal acts are invalid. The losses caused by these activities should be borne by the investors themselves. Investors should not participate in virtual currency speculation, and should not believe the promise of high yield and high return, let alone believe the pie in the sky.
The second is called virtual currency investment, actually a financial pyramid scheme. Criminals take advantage of the new concepts of “virtual currency” and “blockchain”, in the name of “financial management”, “investment and consumption”, “dividends and shares” and “digital currency”. In fact, they use pyramid schemes such as “attracting people’s heads” and “developing offline” to swindle investors’ funds and make them trapped.
The third is to issue air currency or shanzhai currency fraud. Usually combined with some current events or gimmicks to issue a virtual currency, advocating that if you buy this currency, you will get several times or even one hundred times the income, so as to lure users who do not know much about blockchain and virtual currency into the market. In fact, these coins may not be on the chain at all and have no value at all; Even on the chain of fraud gangs have been in the pre-release of a large number of virtual currency as their own, Zhuang pull plate, harvest leeks; Some even directly run away with investors’ money and shut down the platform.
Fourth, impersonating exchange customer service/public security fraud. Impersonate the staff of exchange, wallet and other platforms (customer service/security center) or public inspection law, inform users of the existence of risk operation, black money/black currency and other money laundering risks in their accounts, and require users to cooperate with security checks and relieve account risks. Use the user’s panic psychology, defraud the user’s account information, or induce the user to complete withdrawal or transfer money.
Five is the air drop fraud. One is the coin transfer scam. If you ask to transfer 1 coin to a certain address, how many other currencies will be obtained, but no coins will be dropped to you after you transfer; The second is to require the import of wallet, set the transaction password airspace investment, this situation is easy to lead to the theft of account assets; The third scenario is to download a new cryptocurrency wallet and use a highly camouflaged fake cryptocurrency wallet link to steal user information and assets; The last is the phishing link disguised as airdrop, using various channels to distribute airdrop, or receive the advertising of airdrop, to lure investors to collect, if users click the related link, may lead to the phishing website, loss of assets.
Four tricks to prevent virtual currency fraud
Investors should enhance their awareness of risk prevention and be alert to illegal activities such as virtual currency fraud, pyramid scheme and money laundering. Don’t believe the hype, don’t blindly follow the hype, always alert to speculative risks, to avoid their own property losses.
First, establish a correct monetary concept. The criminals disguised themselves as blockchain investment experts and internal personnel of “digital currency”, “blockchain” and “financial innovation” projects. Relying on the Internet, they hyped up virtual currency, virtual assets and other illegal financial assets through chat tools, dating platforms and leisure forums. Incite the majority of investors to seize the opportunity to participate in the virtual currency trading. At present, the so-called virtual currency in the market does not have the nature of money. The public should view the virtual currency rationally, recognize the investment risks, and be alert to illegal fraud.
Second, establish a correct investment philosophy. Remind investors, financial innovation as a gimmick, the essence is to borrow the new to repay the old financial investment fraud, capital operation is difficult to maintain long-term, so investors should establish a correct investment concept, effectively enhance the risk awareness, once found any institution involved in such illegal financial activities, should timely report to the relevant regulatory authorities, suspected of illegal crimes, Report to the public security organ in time.
The third is to reject “high yield, high return”. Fraudsters use the Internet to spread false information, often using the words “guaranteed profit” and “high return” to lure victims. After promising investors high returns to gain their trust, the virtual currency immediately closes and uses system problems to trap the money, finally taking the money away.
Fourth, be vigilant against cheating in the name of “the state” and “the government”. Fraudsters often use the guise of “issued by the state” and “authorized by the central bank” to induce investors. At present, USD is the only legal currency in China, and no other legal currency has been issued. The public should be vigilant and distinguish between authenticity and authenticity.
(Author: Xi ‘an South Second Ring Sub-Branch, Bank of Communications)
