Nanjing police earlier this week cracked a large cross-border fraudulent bank card case, in which local man Gao Mou was unwittingly swindled out of ¥7 million. The money had been used to buy goods in Hong Kong. After a 2-month investigation Nanjing police finally located the criminal gangs responsible and arrested 12 suspects. This is how it went down.
Stage 1: The Mysterious Groom
Central Hong Kong; at approximately 180cm in height and speaking fluent Cantonese, a man entered a jewellery store and without browsing, approached the counter. He spoke about his wedding, claiming he was to have a large reception and needed to buy a lot of gold. Flustered at the extravagance of this luxury shopper, the manager swiftly put his staff to work helping the customer to choose goods, which he later put into a large suitcase. When it came time to check out, the man paid 7 million, 500 thousand Hong Kong Dollars with his card and the remaining 20,000 in cash.
Stage 2: The Message
Nanjinger Mr. Gao received a message on his phone stating his card had been debited with almost ¥7 million at a POS machine in Hong Kong. Gao immediately checked with his family and company, and after confirming that no one he knew had used the card, immediately came to the conclusion that the card must have been stolen. He hurried down to the Qinhuai branch of the Public Security Bureau where he informed the police.
Stage 3: Fraudster Hunt
Police arrived in central Hong Kong and went straight to the jewellery shop. After scrutinising the surveillance video, police still were unable to identify the man. As an alternative, with the help of Union Pay, police went shop by shop to every location where the card had been used.
Stage 4: A Breakthrough
Following the theft of the card, it was immediately frozen by the bank. After police analysis, it was revealed that the criminal had not taken all money overnight after taking the card, perhaps concerned the victim would immediately find out and freeze the account. The fraudster opted instead to take out smaller sums to accumulate the aforementioned 20,000 that would also appear as normal usage of the card, while helping to ensure that the large amount would successfully transfer when he needed it.
Stage 5: Sieze and Arrest
After successfully swindling Mr. Gao out of ¥7 million, as criminals do, the thief wanted more. So they requested a bank inquiry to see how many more tens of thousands remained in the account. As a result police, were able to track a Mr. Feng Hai, an individual who had been busy buying up goods in Guangzhou at various POS machines. From Feng Hai, two other names were revealed; Xue Zhang and Liang Tao, who were among those helping to launder money across the border from Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Foshan, Hangzhou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen and Maoming.
