Lanzhou police cracked down on a criminal gang that used virtual currency to defraud money and laundered money, arresting 15 suspects

On July 4th, according to Lanzhou Daily, the Anning Branch of Lanzhou Public Security Bureau has recently traced and launched an operation across provinces, fully cracking down on a criminal gang that uses virtual currency to defraud and launder money, arresting 15 suspects and solving 15 cases.

In one of the cases, the victim Ms. Liao met her "boyfriend" who claimed to be a military officer online. Faced with his request for investment and high returns, Ms. Liao transferred 150,000 yuan as "account opening fee" to her friend's account. After the "boyfriend" repeatedly showed that the account managed by his friend was earning a lot of money, Ms. Liao withdrew 1 million yuan on May 1st and converted it into U coins for investment. She then added another 1 million yuan on May 3rd, but later found that she could not withdraw the funds. After preliminary investigation, the case was identified as a new type of telecommunications network fraud. The fraud gang contacted potential victims through social platforms, dating websites, and other channels, established trust, and then induced victims emotionally and through investment temptations to register on designated virtual digital platforms and use virtual currency for recharge.

According to the investigating police, the fraud gang used virtual currency platforms to trade, laundered the received U coins, and converted them into other forms of funds or currencies. The process may involve multiple accounts and trading platforms to conceal the flow of funds and evade police tracking. Currently, the case is still under further investigation.