Virtual currency scam exposed by CCTV

The virtual currency scam was exposed by CCTV

The virtual currency scam was exposed by CCTV. This type of online pyramid schemes using virtual currency as a gimmick appeared as early as three or four years ago. More. The characteristics of this type of cases are obvious. They are basically hyped with new virtual currency-related concepts. The virtual currency scam was exposed by CCTV. Virtual currency scam exposed by CCTV 1

In daily life, there are often unknown phone calls claiming to recruit people into stock groups for free; there are also often advertisements for various stock lectures on online platforms. Many people have the mentality of just joining the group to watch and listen to the classes without spending any money. Unexpectedly, they fall into the whirlpool of being cheated step by step and suffer heavy losses. During the investigation, the reporter found that the so-called "teachers" in these stock groups first recommended stocks. After gaining trust, they would recommend self-issued virtual digital currencies to defraud investors of their money.

"Virtual currency" claimed to be 100 times premium, and the website closed down and ran away

After lurking into the stock group as an investor, the reporter found that there were many victims across the country because of free money. And join the group.

Sound source - lecture audio of a certain stock group: Bateman is my country's first and only digital currency platform that is about to be launched. The platform wants to issue its platform currency equivalent to its stock, which is equivalent to an IPO. I expect its platform currency to have a premium of 10 to 20 times, or even 100 times.

Under the temptation of so-called huge profits of 10 times to 100 times, many people buy large amounts of "virtual coins". Suddenly, the Bateman virtual currency trading platform was closed overnight without warning, the stock group was disbanded, and no so-called "teacher" or "customer service" could be contacted anymore, and all the funds invested by the victims could not be withdrawn. Some victims said that the amount of money they were defrauded reached up to one million yuan.

Beijing investors: At 1 o'clock in the morning on April 9, I woke up in the middle of the night and took a look at the disk on my mobile phone. I found that the platform could not be opened, all the numbers were gone, and my account number was also gone. It's empty, those groups are gone, and all links can't be opened. I was defrauded of more than 400,000 yuan at one time, and more than 1 million yuan at most.

Investor from Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province: My husband was sick, so we took out a loan. Basically, the more than 1 million yuan was borrowed. The main problem now is that I have children who are studying. If my credit card cannot be paid, my credit score will be affected. If my children cannot study, my credit will be in trouble. I have no way out.

A woman with nearly 20 years of stock trading experience is very cautious in investing and feels that she will definitely not be cheated. At first, she watched other people in the group follow the teacher to operate digital currencies. Unmoved either. However, as people in the group kept posting some super-profitable profit screenshots, and the "teachers" continued to brainwash them, they invested their first money with the mentality of giving it a try.

Investors from Pingdingshan City, Henan Province: I still couldn't resist the temptation. I transferred 4,000 yuan first, then won the lottery again during the lottery. I bought it again at 12 o'clock in the evening, which is equivalent to a total investment of 44,000 yuan. After investing in it, he said it was a lock-up period and started to issue platform coins again. The platform coins were 10 times more profitable.

Xia Yu, a lawyer at Beijing Kangda Law Firm: According to Article 266 of my country’s Criminal Law, suspected fraud may be sentenced to a maximum sentence of more than 10 years depending on the specific circumstances of the crime. Imprisonment, even life imprisonment.

Using stock lectures as a cover to deceive the elderly with human kindness

Why is this common fraud scheme so successful? The reporter found that in addition to playing emotional cards to gain the trust of victims, the most important thing is that these fraud gangs have repeatedly impersonated some large formal financial platforms to endorse themselves, fabricating some false stories of getting rich overnight to lure victims into taking the bait.

The reporter saw in the stock group that this online lecture platform is called "LANXESS Double Lecture Hall".

Investors joined through the stock teaching advertisements it released, and many people initially entered the platform to listen to the lessons with the mentality of giving it a try. In addition to giving lectures, the so-called "teacher" will also post long articles to answer questions for the "students" in the middle of the night every day, and the "assistant teacher" with a beautiful girl's avatar will answer the stock questions of the "students" at any time. After gradually gaining trust, the "teacher" persuades the "students" to buy virtual digital currency.

Investor in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province: He started to recommend a few stocks to you and made money. However, he ignored the next few recommended stocks and kept asking you to hold them. Then he said that the current market is not good. Let you sell all your stocks and buy new coins.

Beijing investors: The profits of virtual currencies are too high. They can rise from a few yuan to dozens of yuan in a short time. Our final speculation is to reach 10 times. He lectures in a persuasive and instructive manner, with a strong human touch and special concern for people.

Many victims told reporters that they had also had suspicions, but fraud gangs often used the identities of some large securities firms as endorsements to confuse investors. The reporter saw in the stock group that once an investor If you express doubts, you will be banned or kicked out of the group immediately. In the end, the victims who have never been exposed to virtual currencies and lack financial knowledge are left behind.

The victims revealed to reporters that until now they have never seen this so-called Mr. Li of the securities company, and they don’t even know his full name.

Moreover, they realized afterward that the "Bateman Virtual Currency Trading Platform" did not actually exist, and the so-called "virtual currency" new prices and price increases and decreases were not real and were completely a fraud. A digital illusion directed and performed by the platform.

Five types of online fraud are repeatedly banned, and the police warn of risks

At present, many victims have reported the crime. During the investigation, the reporter found that there are still many similar fraud gangs still committing fraud. So, how should ordinary investors avoid being cheated?

Multiple victims told reporters that they have recently discovered that new stock lecture platforms and new digital currency trading platforms have emerged. When they registered and logged in using their mobile phone numbers and ID card information, they found that anyone who had previously registered on the Bateman Trading Platform had their accounts frozen after registering on the new so-called "Osman Trading Platform". Enter.

Beijing investor: I discovered an Ottoman platform, which is also a digital currency. The content is the same as Bateman, but the name is different. There are some differences in currency types, but other operation methods, including fund management, new currency subscription, flow inquiry, etc., are exactly the same.

The reporter also found on multiple online platforms that many victims were deceived by the same method at different times. Except for the name of the platform and the name of the lecturer, the other deception methods were almost exactly the same. Many victims have called the police after learning that they were deceived.

Staff of Hongxing Police Station, Daxing Branch of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau: This case has been filed and investigation has been launched, and the criminal police will be responsible for the later investigation.

The police said that there are many similar fraud cases, and investors must be more vigilant. If they feel abnormal after transferring money to an unfamiliar account, they should call the police immediately.

At present, there are more than 50 types of fraud discovered by the public security organs, among which 5 main types of cases occur frequently, namely online bill rebates, false investment and financial management, and false online loans. , pretending to be customer service, and pretending to be public prosecutor.

Xia Yu, lawyer at Beijing Kangda Law Firm: I would like to remind investors to choose formal and legal investment channels. Keep in mind that "pie in the sky will never fall" and be wary of investments with ultra-high returns. Virtual currency scam exposed by CCTV 2

With the support of the Metaverse concept, various NFT chain game projects are booming, and criminal gangs are also following the trend, developing so-called chain game projects, issuing game tokens and Launched decentralized exchange.

Ling Feng revealed that such online pyramid schemes using virtual currency as a gimmick had appeared three or four years ago, and there were more cases abroad.

"The characteristics of this type of case are obvious. They basically use new virtual currency-related concepts to hype up and attract people to participate in investment." He said.

Ling Feng said, “On Twitter, Tieba and other platforms, if someone takes the initiative to chat privately and introduce their projects to you, then these can basically be judged as scams; if someone sends an invitation code, it is basically a scam. It can be determined as a pyramid scheme.”

According to the “2021 Blockchain and Virtual Currency Crime Trend Research Report” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) released by Zhifan Technology, virtual currency The models of MLM cases mainly include exchange model, wallet model, false "smart contract" model, smart contract model, mining machine rental model, cloud mining machine model, quantitative robot model, short video model, matrix DAPP model, and chain game yuan. These 10 typical situations of cosmic patterns.

Take the currently popular "Metaverse" as an example. With the support of the Metaverse concept, various NFT chain game projects are booming, and criminal gangs are also following the trend to develop so-called chain game projects and issue Game tokens are listed on decentralized exchanges.

The "Report" pointed out that such cases usually involve project parties attracting investors through hot spots, affiliated with well-known projects, etc., continuously increasing the value of game tokens, and relying on high returns from a combination of dynamic and static To attract more speculators to join, the essence is still to expand the fund pool by relying on users to exchange the mainstream currency consumed by the platform currency, and the project team takes the opportunity to arbitrage money and run away.

According to industry insiders, as a new form of online MLM, virtual currency MLM is highly concealed, but the deception is ever-changing and has nothing more than three typical characteristics: First, the entry fee, investors need to pass Pay a fee to obtain the qualification to join; the second is to attract people, the income of MLM participants comes from the fees paid by the downline members they develop; the third is compound remuneration, and remuneration is based on the number of direct or indirect development personnel.

In response to the above-mentioned situations, relevant departments are also increasing supervision. For example, at the end of February 2022, the Supreme People's Court included virtual currency transactions into the illegal absorption of funds for the first time. In addition, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has also previously issued risk warnings on preventing illegal fund-raising in the name of "Yuanverse".

The reporter noticed that during this year’s two sessions, many deputies to the National People’s Congress and members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference also expressed their views on strengthening the supervision of industries related to the Metaverse. Tan Jianfeng, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, president of the Fifth Space Information Technology Research Institute, and honorary president of the Shanghai Information Security Industry Association, said that currently, NFT virtual artworks (such as cartoon portraits, electronic oil paintings) based on blockchain technology When the "Metaverse" becomes popular, but supervision is difficult to implement, new money laundering channels may be formed.

"To deepen the development of the digital economy, it must be integrated with the real economy. However, at the same time, we must beware of capital taking advantage of national development plans and hot concepts to create new virtual economic bubbles and prevent individuals from taking advantage of policy dividends." ', cut investors' leeks," Tan Jianfeng said.

Wang Peng, associate professor at Renmin University of China, told reporters that there are currently endless online frauds including telecommunications fraud, illegal fund-raising, etc., which mainly take advantage of two public mentality. One is the emergence of new technologies, new elements or new applications. , everyone generally does not understand it; the second is the speculative psychology, speculating without understanding and trying to make a quick buck.

To this end, Wang Peng put forward the following suggestions to prevent online fraud using concepts such as the Metaverse and NFT as gimmicks. First, relevant government regulatory authorities should strengthen crackdowns, discover relevant clues in a timely manner, and cut off, Deal with it in a timely manner, rather than deal with it after turning a small problem into a big social problem;

Second, industry associations and other relevant professional institutions should target the Metaverse and NFT Wait for new technologies to issue relevant industry codes and strengthen public education; third, the mass media should strengthen relevant publicity. On the one hand, it should strengthen publicity on the technology application itself and remove the mystery of the technology; on the other hand, it should allow everyone to increase risks. consciousness.

“Finally, I think from my own perspective, one is to strengthen the study of technology, and don’t follow what others say. Risks and returns are directly proportional. The higher the returns, the higher the risks; second, don’t believe in the so-called It’s a good opportunity, so be cautious about making quick money in a short period of time and think about it in the long term,” Wang Peng said. Virtual currency scam exposed by CCTV 3

Recently, more than 150,000 young people in the Philippines are addicted to playing a pet-raising game to make money. The principle is that players obtain electronic cards by raising an elf. This kind of card is actually a kind of virtual currency, and players can freely trade it on a dedicated online encryption trading platform in exchange for real currency.

These young people obtain virtual currencies by “mining” and can earn an income ranging from several hundred dollars per month. This is essentially a blockchain token game disguised as a game. However, in the Philippines, where the per capita monthly income is about US$200, you can earn a lot of money playing games, which is undoubtedly very attractive to young people. .

However, it should be noted that making profits through blockchain token games is unstable and may even be a scam. For example, the "Mars Volunteers" blockchain game became popular at the beginning of this year. Although it has attracted the attention of Metaverse and Musk, promoting "play and earn" and earning up to 10,000 times, it needs to spend more than 600 yuan to purchase virtual currency first. In the end, the high profits promoted by the game were wiped out due to the collapse of the currency value.

In response to this type of behavior, the "Risk Warning on Preventing Illegal Fund-raising in the Name of "Yuanverse"" issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission on February 18 this year mentioned that, Some criminals took advantage of the hot spots and absorbed funds under the names of "Yuanshi Investment Project" and "Yuanshi Chain Game", and were suspected of illegal fund-raising, fraud and other illegal and criminal activities. In essence, how much money can be exchanged for virtual tokens obtained in the name of playing games is based on extremely unstable market transaction values. Once it collapses, it will eventually become a bubble game.

Therefore, China has always focused on the supervision of Bitcoin. In May last year, the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council held a meeting, requiring resolute prevention and control of financial risks and crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading. From a purely technical perspective, professional mining machines are far more efficient than ordinary game-playing machines in terms of blockchain “mining” efficiency. China once accounted for more than 60% of the world's "mining farm" computing power. Many "miners" deployed massive mining machines in China in search of cheap energy sources such as small hydropower.

However, even though China can obtain some overseas income by mining various currencies such as Bitcoin, it still resolutely shut down mines in various places, and its proportion of global computing power quickly dropped to less than 5. This is the right decision, because a huge amount of energy is wasted just to produce casino chips, which is not beneficial to China as a whole. Many people have discovered that the previous surge in the price of graphics cards is related to the large number of graphics cards being used for mining. If young people are induced to participate in blockchain currency speculation, the consequences will be even worse.

However, there are not many countries in the world that are as resolute in regulating and shutting down all kinds of blockchain currency speculation as China. Due to the huge pressure in life, young Koreans have participated in digital currency games, hoping to get rich overnight. In the winter of 2017, two-thirds of the world’s largest Bitcoin transactions occurred in South Korea.

There is no doubt that the development of digital technology is the highlight of the global economy in the new century, but it is not necessarily a good thing for young people in the "e era". Young people in most countries around the world have grown up in an era of rapid development of digital technology. Influenced by various myths about getting rich, their perception of wealth is also changing. The way that the previous generation worked hard on factory assembly lines to accumulate wealth is "gone" in the minds of young people and is no longer attractive.

In fact, for countries with a large labor force and lack of employment opportunities, such as the Philippines, even factory assembly line jobs with average incomes are a good starting point for young people, and factories can also provide a large number of jobs. The local government Very welcome. However, electronic culture invaded these countries before industrial culture, and only low-end computers and mobile phones were enough to make young people in the entire country addicted to it.

Therefore, some countries are aware of this problem and will guide digital technology to the right uses, such as promoting remote teaching during the epidemic, limiting the time for teenagers to play games, and Game content is regulated. However, the development levels of countries around the world are different. It is no longer easy to enjoy the fruits of digital technology through development. To further promote the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages, it poses higher challenges.

No matter how advanced science and technology are, if the country wants to achieve long-term development, the spirit of young people’s hard work cannot be lost. It is the proper meaning of a positive energy society to get rid of the fog woven by technology and correctly understand the Ponzi schemes or bubble economic hype under various new packages.

With the continuous advancement of various technologies such as artificial intelligence, robots, and new energy, the nature of labor in traditional industries may one day fundamentally change, but this change requires young people to be led to real jobs. scientific and technological innovation, rather than increasingly indulging in the bubble game of "capital and human nature".