Cross border e-commerce has high profits, making it easy to make money with your fingers? Beware of stepping into scammers' online traps

CCTV News ClientWhat would you think if someone told you that as long as you invest a Franchise fee to rent and buy an online store on the cross-border e-commerce platform, you can not only have someone to help you maintain and manage, but also earn income from the online store, which can generate tens of thousands of yuan every month? Ms. Wang from Ningbo, Zhejiang is very impressed by this, but is there really such an easy business?Ms

CCTV News Client

What would you think if someone told you that as long as you invest a Franchise fee to rent and buy an online store on the cross-border e-commerce platform, you can not only have someone to help you maintain and manage, but also earn income from the online store, which can generate tens of thousands of yuan every month? Ms. Wang from Ningbo, Zhejiang is very impressed by this, but is there really such an easy business?

Ms. Wang said that in April 2022, a salesperson who claimed to be a technology company added her WeChat account. The salesperson introduced that their company specializes in hosting cross-border e-commerce business, and as long as they spend money to rent an electronic store, they can "lie down and make money".

Victim Ms. Wang:He showed me the situation of other people's storefronts he made. He said how much he made in a week, how much he made in ten days, and how much he made in a month. He said they all sold to Japan or Europe.

The salesperson recommended a cross-border e-commerce platform in the so-called European and American markets to Ms. Wang. He claimed that operating online stores on this platform would result in higher investment returns, and the operation would be very simple.

Victim Ms. Wang:Everyone else has a store with 100000 or 200000 yuan. I said I don't have any money, but he said 20000 yuan is the lowest. After a year and a half, it became 50000 or 60000 yuan.

Ms. Wang thought that although the minimum investment income was not so high, it was a rare opportunity for her to earn these without any effort. So she paid the money through the QR code payment sent by the other party and signed an electronic contract.

The salesperson said that although the company will have an operations teacher to help manage the online store, Ms. Wang does not need to worry, but the online store also needs to purchase goods like physical stores, and the payment for the purchase needs to be paid by her.

Victim Ms. Wang:He said it was just the lowest cost for me to invest, but I still need to pay for the purchase. How much more do I need to pay? He said to hit 5000. I asked him if it was the last one? He said the last stroke.

However, it is obvious that the salesperson has broken his promise. Just a week later, he told Ms. Wang that the online store still needs to continue purchasing.

Victim Ms. Wang:A week later, he sent a note saying that the goods were sold out for 5000 yuan and asked me to pay 5000 yuan. I don't think this will give you 25000 yuan, why do you still ask me to pay? I don't want to.

The salesperson claimed that the initial condition of the store was good, with several thousand yuan in revenue, but Ms. Wang needed to invest more funds to make the online store operate and profits would soar. However, Ms. Wang is a bit hesitant. She needs to purchase goods once a week, and her investment will increase. When will she receive the money earned from selling goods?

Victim Ms. Wang:I asked him when you would give me money? He said that in 45 days, I will pay 5000 yuan a week. Only by giving you so much money can you give me a little bit. Do you really want me to make so much money in a year and a half?

After careful consideration, Ms. Wang had the idea of quitting, but at this point she realized that the money invested might not be worth a penny.

Victim Ms. Wang:I wanted to discuss this matter with the supervisor, but later he directly said he didn't agree to give me a refund. Anyway, he didn't agree to a refund. At that time, I was also thinking that maybe I could make money, and I was too gullible.

All initial investment funds were swallowed up due to 'default'

Ms. Wang found that her actual income has always been lower than the cost of opening a store, purchasing goods, and buying traffic. When she was about to exit, the company refused a refund and swallowed all the funds for opening the store, citing a "breach of contract". Ms. Wang realized that she was likely deceived and quickly reported the case to the police station. After investigation by the police, it was found that Ms. Wang was not the only victim of this scam.

The police conducted investigations along the line and identified a criminal gang that used a "technology company" as a disguise but actually carried out fraud under the guise of "cross-border e-commerce operation". The first step for this group of people to cheat was to lure the victim into opening a store.

Zhang Wenzhe, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauIt can be said that the company spent a lot of money to find Personal media or some third-party organizations to promote them, and made a lot of PPTs, pictures, advertisements, videos and promotional videos.

Police investigation has found that fraud gangs use the internet to widely advertise, attract customers, and create the illusion that the company is very legitimate and powerful, gaining people's trust. Once a victim is hooked, the salesperson will recommend them to rent and buy storefronts on so-called cross-border e-commerce platforms for prices ranging from 20000 to 200000 yuan.

Zhang Dengkui, Leader of Communication Internet fraud Crime Investigation Squadron of Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security Bureau:The criminal gangs involved in this case mainly promote two platforms, and when displaying them to the victims, they feel particularly formal. One is the "starday" platform, which is aimed at Japan and has also established a market for Europe and America, the "going shopping" platform. The victims find it difficult to distinguish the authenticity of the website.

Zhang Wenzhe, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauOne is the Japanese platform, the other is the European and American platform. We have investigated and it is clear that this platform was created by them themselves. The professional term for the backend is "swiping orders". From the listing of goods to the generation of transaction orders, all the data that this platform can present to the victims is their own data tampering and forgery.

Under the packaging of gang members, the platform they built themselves has transformed into a hot new favorite for cross-border e-commerce investment, claiming that the more investment they make in their stores, the more profits they can earn. With just one finger, they can easily make money from home. After the victim signs the contract and transfers the account, the gang members will start the second step of implementing the scam: using the script to guide the victim to increase investment.

Zhang Wenzhe, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauAt the beginning, the victim was asked to open a small store, such as a 20000 yuan store, but the payment could not be returned. Their after-sales department explained that your store is a small one with limited transaction volume. You need to upgrade your store, increase the investment amount of the store, recommend stores worth 50000 or 100000 yuan, invest in larger stores, and increase the storage capacity of the store's warehouse.

In addition to "upgrading stores" and "stocking up", "purchasing channels" are also a common excuse for gang members to deceive victims into increasing investment. They claim that after purchasing goods, there will be cargo ballast, which requires increasing sales in order to make profits. This requires an additional amount of so-called "channel fee" purchase traffic. Sometimes, after the victim invests more money, gang members will take screenshots to show that the transaction volume of the store has indeed increased, but in reality, the numbers on the page are all modified by them through the backend.

Zhang Dengkui, Leader of Communication Internet fraud Crime Investigation Squadron of Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security Bureau:The suspect will show the victim the operational status of the store he opened, such as 18 people coming today, how much traffic was there, 2 orders placed, the amount of orders placed, and how much the store sold. The suspect will show the victim this image, which appears to be in actual operation, but in reality, these data are all scanned.

Zhang Wenzhe, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauThe data can be modified on its own to present more transaction volume to the victim, in order to gain their trust. If the victim feels that the investment money is effective, they repeatedly encourage the victim to increase their investment, ultimately reaching a large amount.

The police have learned that there may also be victims who are unable to obtain store profits questioning the company. At this point, gang members will find reasons to delay or return a small amount of "profits" to the victims to calm their emotions. When the victim realizes that something is wrong and wants to close the store, the gang members will swallow all the funds they invested in the early stage under the pretext of "default".

Zhang Wenzhe, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauThis company is throwing this issue to the platform or abroad. If it is due to the operational requirements of the platform, our cooperation mechanism, etc., or if it is stipulated that the amount should be refunded at two time points every month, it is actually a blind act.

In order to prevent the platforms they built themselves from revealing their flaws, gang members will use reasons such as "remote login carries risks" and "affecting the operation of teachers' stores" to prevent victims from logging into so-called cross-border e-commerce platforms to view store information, resulting in many people being kept in the dark and difficult to detect clues.

Zhang Wenzhe, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauThe company provides many payment channels, especially bank accounts, allowing people to make money into these accounts. After you transfer the money to the company, you don't have to worry about anything, or they don't give people any right to know. The so-called "I'm a fully managed agent" operation, under the guise of this, people can't even see how the online store they invest in is operating.

Mastering the organizational structure, the police launched a network capture operation

After mastering the organizational structure and location of the fraud gang and identifying their criminal evidence, the Ningbo Haishu police rushed to Henan on March 15, 2023 to carry out a network capture operation.

Zhang Dengkui, the captain of the Anti Fraud Squadron of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauOur bureau, together with the Henan police, dispatched more than 300 police to divide into ten action teams, opened a centralized network for three fraud dens, successfully captured 256 suspect, seized more than 200 electronic devices such as computers and mobile phones, and initially seized more than 50 million yuan of funds involved in the case.

At the time of the police's arrest, the so-called salesperson was still typing and soliciting customers, while the technician was still tampering with backend data and forging transaction records The police remind that this new type of scam uses "cross-border e-commerce proxy operation" as a disguise. In fact, the so-called platform does not carry out transactions at all, and the so-called sales rely solely on backend operations. The so-called profits rely solely on early stage capital investment, and the outcome will only be a "scam".

Zhang Dengkui, the captain of the Anti Fraud Squadron of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Haishu Branch of Ningbo Public Security BureauAfter careful screening, all investment projects that encounter low investment, short cycle, high yield, no one click trusteeship of goods and require transfer for various reasons are telecom Internet fraud. In addition, we would like to remind young comrades who are looking for jobs that companies that are conducting similar businesses can also call 96110 for consultation to avoid falling into fraud traps.

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