Zhuang, 28 this year, has a stable job. Although he is not wealthy, he lives comfortably. However, in order to fit into the circle of rich second-generation individuals around him, Zhuang started renting luxury cars from Xu's rental company in 2021, and he also liked to post photos of himself driving BMWs, Porsches, Ferraris, etc., in WeChat groups, creating an image for himself as a 'rich second-generation'.
In August 2022, Zhuang saw an advertisement for a car group online. After joining the group, a group member posted a link for the virtual currency 'Dogecoin'. Tempted by the high returns, Zhuang invested all his savings into 'Dogecoin'. In September, the price of 'Dogecoin' plummeted, but Zhuang believed the price drop was temporary and that it would definitely rise again later. He then borrowed 150,000 yuan online, borrowed 470,000 yuan from friends and colleagues, and invested all 600,000 yuan given by his parents for business into 'Dogecoin'.
However, after investing heavily for a month, Zhuang found that the platform for purchasing virtual currency could not be operated, and the funds within the platform could not be withdrawn. Eventually, even the webpage could not be opened. Zhuang's parents believed he had been scammed and took him to report the case to the public security authorities.
Having failed to profit from cryptocurrency trading, Zhuang, feeling frustrated, wanted to turn his situation around. At the end of 2022, coinciding with the World Cup, Zhuang sought to make a comeback through gambling. He joined a lottery group, and a group member informed Zhuang that he could watch matches on a specific app, which not only provided real-time analysis but also had links to gambling pages. Zhuang watched the matches while jumping to the linked webpages to gamble, ultimately losing nearly 500,000 yuan, most of which was borrowed money.
In just half a year, due to trading cryptocurrencies and gambling, Zhuang was burdened with over 1 million yuan in debt. His monthly salary only covered the online loans, and his parents had already run out of savings. Zhuang knew he could not repay the debts and could only try to delay repayment through borrowing to pay off loans.
In September 2023, Zhuang saw an advertisement posted on his classmate Gu's WeChat Moments about car pledge loans, vehicle scrapping acquisitions, and second-hand car buybacks. He decided to take a risk and solve his debt problem at once. Zhuang first rented a BMW from Xu's rental company and then contacted Gu, saying, "Xu owes me 1.3 million yuan and gave me a car as collateral for the debt. I can handle it as I wish; can you help me with a loan against it?" Zhuang also forged chat records and a loan note with Xu, and made a fake vehicle driving license for Xu online to make Gu believe it was real. After Gu inspected the vehicle, he agreed to Zhuang's pledge loan.
Gu and Zhuang agreed that the loan period would be one month, with an interest rate of 2%. If the principal was not repaid by the due date, the pledged car would belong to Gu. Zhuang then signed the car pledge loan agreement, the loan note, and a commission for overdue sale, as well as a scrapped vehicle handling agreement. Gu transferred 100,000 yuan to Zhuang.
The smooth first pledge loan gave Zhuang the confidence to continue deceiving others. In the following month, Zhuang rented three more luxury cars from Xu's company, rented two more luxury cars from another platform, and pledged the vehicles to Gu multiple times, accumulating loans of 1.16 million yuan to repay personal debts, pay vehicle rental fees, and cover daily expenses.
When pledging the third vehicle, Gu sensed the risk and requested the owner to pledge in person. To continue deceiving, Zhuang again forged relevant materials as he did the first two times, using Feng's name to secure the loan. To avoid raising Gu's suspicions, Zhuang claimed, "Xu runs a rental car company, and Feng is his cousin. Some cars are under Feng's name, and he has no money to repay, so he pledged all the cars." Before signing the loan note, Zhuang even called Feng on-site to ask if he agreed to use the car as collateral for the loan, and Feng agreed.
It is understood that Feng cooperated with Gu for online signing three times. Why did Feng help Zhuang? It turned out that Zhuang owed Feng 260,000 yuan that he had not repaid. Most of this money was also borrowed by Feng and was nearing the repayment deadline. To convince Feng to agree to the online signing, Zhuang deceived Feng by saying, "My friend's company has a loan business and wants to use your name to get a loan to meet the quota. As long as you sign online on Alipay, the loan will be withdrawn once it's approved."
Zhuang assured Feng that once the online signing succeeded, he would prioritize repaying Feng's money after receiving the loan commission. Feng, eager to get his money back to settle debts, and overly trusting of Zhuang's 'rich second-generation' identity, agreed. After successfully securing a loan from Gu by using Feng's name, Zhuang repaid Feng over 220,000 yuan.
In early October 2023, Gu discovered that the driving license provided by Zhuang was forged. Sensing something was wrong, Gu approached Zhuang to demand the repayment of the loan; otherwise, he would report it to the police. Zhuang relied on family and friends to repay Gu a total of 619,000 yuan. As he was unable to repay the remaining debt of over 540,000 yuan, Zhuang voluntarily turned himself in at the end of October 2023. On the day of the incident, the vehicle involved was recovered by the public security authorities and returned to the rental company.
Renting cars for pledge loans is a typical case of 'double deception' in judicial practice. After the case was transferred to the prosecution for review and prosecution, the prosecuting attorney conducted thorough research and analysis on the case's classification and the determination of the amount involved: "Zhuang's subjective intention was to defraud others for money. He knew he had no right to dispose of the vehicles and had no ability to repay the loans but still used an economic contract to defraud Gu of the loan, illegally occupying it for himself. This behavior disrupted the order of the car buying and pledging market and constituted contract fraud. The amount involved is the 541,000 yuan Zhuang has yet to repay as of the incident."
In April 2024, the Taicang City Prosecutor’s Office filed a public prosecution against Zhuang for suspected contract fraud. Recently, the court sentenced Zhuang to three years in prison and fined him 50,000 yuan, ordering him to return 541,000 yuan in illicit gains to the victim, Gu. Zhuang accepted the verdict without appeal.