Credit card is favored by the general public especially the youth because of its advantages. It is not only convenient to draw money by such card in urgent needs, its holders can aslo enjoy certain discounts or advantages in various product promotions. However, aquiring a credit card from a bank through regular channels will take you a lot of time in addition to those cerfications you have to provide and the procedures you have to follow. Consequently, many people choose to apply for credit cards through computer network, which gives criminals chances to defraud. They put the advert “handling credit card service” on the internet, pretending to be the credit card issuer of a certain bank. They manufacture fake credit cards and send them to victims, and charge them hundreds or even thansands yuan for materials, opening expense and capital verification. Yesterday, the reporter learned from the Wujia district police station that they, by working together with the police in Zhejiang Province, have cracked down a swindler gang and uncovered a seriel cross-provincial telecom fraud, which involves nearly ten million yuan.
Cross-provincial fraud case
Three dens cracked in Yichang
When you surf on the internet, you may find that an ad “handling the credit cards” pops up suddenly, and you often receive such messages on your mobile phone. If so, you have to be careful, because they are not ordinary advertisement at all.
Early this year, several telecom fraud cases happened in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. They are no ordinary fraud cases. Those fraudsters usaully posted an advertisement on the internet claiming to help other people to acquire credit cards, or call up citizens to promote such service. When a client accepted such service, the fraudsters would make money by charging the victim for the materials, opening expenses and capital verification. It is learned that the money cheated out of the victims goes up to tens of millions yuan. And the police in Huzhou found out that the fraudsters involved had sneeked into Wujia District of Yichang city in Hubei Provinuce.
In April, Huzhou police came to Yichang to seek assistance from the police in Wujia district. Through investigations, the police found out that the main suspect was named Zhangdong from Xiaogan, Hubei province, and that he frequented the other residential areas within Wujia district and was in close touch with his cousin and Zengbo who are both from Xiaogan too. And a further comprehensive detection revealed that the more than 20 suspects involved hid in the three different areas of Wu Jiagang district.
On 13th May, the police raided the three dens and busted all the suspects including Zhangdong and Zengbo, and seized a great quantity of fraud credit cards, computers and printers in their rented houses.
Among the sea of faces
To search for the victims within 48 hours
Some of the busted suspects were turned over to the Huzhou police. The rest 5 suspects, who were not involved in the fraud case in Huzhou, undoubtedly partcipated in defraud crimes. Where are the victims in this case The police investigation is in full swing.
So far, Yichang police had not yet received any reports about the telecom frauds. In search of the relevant victims, the police came to know according to the remittance notices from the banks received by the suspects that those banks through which the victims sent money are located outside Yichang. The police then contacted those related local police to check if there were any related fraud reports. In this way, they finally found the victims. According to the policemen responsible for the case, once they found a victim by this method, but they were mistaken for the swindler by him when they called him up. He said on the phone: “You’ve cheated me once, isn’t it enough? I won’t fall for it again.”
Hard work pays off. The police eventually verified two relevant cases through the banking records within the 48 hours. One is that Mr. Gao in Shandong Province was choused out of 12000 yuan and the other is that Mr. Sun in Shaanxi was choused out of 12800 yuan. The five suspects confessed their crimes for the above two cases.
Foxy swindlers hiding separately but captured together
They cheated nearly 300,000 yuan out of more than 20 victims within 13 days!
The five suspects come from Xiaogan, with Zengbo and Liuyu, the ringleaders, both aged at 28, and the youngest one aged 18. It is learned that Zengbo committed fraud together with Liuyu by applying credit cards for others in Suizhou and other places in Hubei Province in March, 2014, but they made no money out of it because of their few business channels and opportunities. Then Zeng Bo joined with Zhangdong, another swindler in Yichang, who is also from Xiaogan. So Zeng Bo together with Liuyu and other swindlers came to Yichang in early May, 2015. Altogether the swindlers amounted to more than 20 in number. And they rented houses separately in three different places in Wujia District to evade capture by the police, with Zhangdong, Zengbo and Liuyu, and another guy respectively in charge of the criminal groups in the three places.
Zhang Dong was the chief leader of the swindlers in the three dens. He was in control of all the fake credit cards and the personal information of their potential clients. He sent those personal information to the three dens, which printed it out and assigned his members to call the clients one by one to sell their service. Each member of the gangs was equipped with a computer and a charge card. And they could choose their own work schedule and decide their progress.
Usually, Zhang would drive to the three places to make an inspection tour with an aim to make his men feel safe on one hand and to assure his domination of all the information on the other. He also paid for the living expenses and wages for all the men under him. To evade capture, they usually would not stay in one place for long. It is learned by the police that the gangsters stayed in Yichang for only 13 days, during which they made nearly 3000 phone calls and cheated nearly 300,000 yuan out of more than 20 victims.
Unveiling the truth
How did they cheat
With Zhangdong and other suspects being arrested, their trick came to light. According to the police, those fake credit cards used by the suspects were made by professional card producer, they are of fine quality and difficult to differentiate from gunine credit cards only by their looks. Moreover, the fake cards can be inserted into ATM, and the account balances of its holder can be displayed by the machine. However, they cannot be used to draw or spend the money on it.
Next, in order to find their target customers, Zhang and his mens bought the personal information of other people online at the price of 2 yuan for each piece. Such information includes people’s names, genders, ID card numbers, current addresses, phone numbers and even the records of their applications to a certain bank for credit cards. Usually, it is grouped by the unit of 1000 pieces.
Having acquired the personal information of their targets, they went on with making phone calls to one person after another. As they claimed, one can apply for a credit card without providing of such certifications as identity and income, and have the chance to apply for a card with high maximum amount if needed, and enjoy a quick service, that is, his application will be approved within “one to three days”. As a result, many people were taken in. If they agreed to apply for a credit card, they were asked to pay 200 or 300 yuan for materials. If they had made such payment, they would receive a credit card issued by the so-called credit card issuing center of a certain bank in a few days.
Certainly, these clients could not use the credit cards immediately so that they had to call up and made an inquiry to the “bank clerk”, who would then contact “the credit card department” and required him to pay hundreds to thousands yuan for the opening fee of the account and verification expense under the excuse of verifying the payment ability of the client. And some client even paid up to 30000 yuan for such fees. Actually; the so-called clerk and department were conspiring in the same room.
Currently, the five suspects have been transferred to the local procuratorate for prosecution of fraud, and the whole case is still under further investigation. (The personal names used in the article are made up.) (Reporter: Wang Jingjing Correspondent: Wu Gongxuan)