Recently, the Anning Branch of the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau in Gansu Province successfully cracked a series of virtual currency money laundering fraud cases, involving more than 35 million yuan, revealing the mystery of a criminal gang that used emotional induction and virtual currency to commit fraud. (From Coinsradar.net)
The story began at the end of April, when Ms. Liao met a man who claimed to be a military officer on the Internet and quickly fell in love. This "military officer boyfriend" was not only gentle and considerate, but also shared an internal financial management platform called "Hainan Energy International Trading Center", claiming that it could bring up to 15% interest returns. Due to his special status, he could not open an account in person, so he asked Ms. Liao to do it for him and promised to repay all expenses. Ms. Liao was attracted by this deep affection and high returns, and transferred 150,000 yuan as "account opening fee".
With her boyfriend's careful planning, Ms. Liao gradually developed a strong interest in this so-called financial management platform. On May 1, she followed her boyfriend's instructions and brought 1 million yuan in cash to a square in Anning District, Lanzhou City for a face-to-face transaction with her boyfriend's "friend". The cash was quickly converted into Tether (USDT, referred to as U-coin) and transferred to the so-called financial management platform account. After tasting the sweetness, Ms. Liao invested another 1 million yuan under her boyfriend's lobbying.
However, the good times did not last long. When Ms. Liao tried to withdraw some funds from the platform to use for business turnover, she encountered many obstacles. Although the platform showed profits, the funds could not be transferred out. Realizing that she might have been cheated, Ms. Liao went to the police station to report the case on May 5.
After receiving the report, the Anning Branch of the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau immediately set up a special task force to investigate. By retrieving surveillance videos and tracking the flow of funds, the police quickly locked down the whereabouts of the suspect. On the evening of May 5, the police found that the vehicle involved had headed towards Sichuan, so they drove to hunt for the suspect overnight.
After several days of continuous efforts, the police arrested suspects including Mao, Wu, and Weng in Sichuan, Xi'an, and Leshan. According to their confessions, these people were "backpackers" of the fraud gang, responsible for exchanging cash and virtual currency in various places. Their superiors Ma and Yang were responsible for cashing the exchanged cash into U coins in a higher-level criminal network and charging them to the victim's virtual investment platform account.
The successful cracking of this case not only helped the victims recover some of their economic losses, but more importantly, it sounded the alarm for the general public against fraud. The police reminded the general public to remain highly vigilant when making friends and investing online, and not to trust the sweet words and high return promises of strangers. At the same time, they should also strengthen their self-prevention awareness and not disclose important information such as personal information and bank accounts at will, so as not to become the next target of criminals.
