Their days of conning vulnerable young males desperate to find a partner are over. Police in China have recently cracked a huge telecom fraud case involving a live-broadcast platform, leading to the arrest of 184 people on suspicion of coercion.
The case has its origins in two smaller, but similar apprehensions, made in the summer of last year. Those and the bust achieved recently all occurred in Changsha County of Changsha City in Hunan Province.
In June 2020, Changsha County Public Security Bureau found a criminal den suspected of using a live-broadcast platform to implement telecom fraud. In the early morning of 30 July, Changsha County police were able to close the noose on the case and arrest 30 people.
Likewise, on 15 October last year, the County Police came down on another telecommunication fraud gang and arrested 91 people involved in the case, reports Phoenix New Media.
In the process of handling the two cases, police found they had obtained a key clue. Many similar fraud dens had emerged in the Changsha area, and a large live-broadcast platform fraud group surfaced. The group was found to be well organised, with clear divisions between corporate, HR and operations.
For the victims, it all starts innocently enough. Or almost. The platforms’ customers are mostly young males looking for love. In the first instance, they have been persuaded to part with a little cash for online chats with those purporting to be able to assist them in their quest.
As well as the prerequisite pretty female anchor, in many cases a male host also appears in efforts to establish greater credibility.
Police discovered that the back end of the online platform is divided into platform management, broadcast anchor and a so called “chat hand” (聊手). After the pretty anchor has gained the target’s trust, the chat hand talks with them, pretending to be the anchor.
Ultimately, the chat hand was able to deceive victims into believing that they might be able to meet the female anchor in person. In many cases, this was sufficient for the victims to fork out more money for a continued subscription.
On the evening of 11 January this year, with sufficient evidence to mount the sting, Changsha County Police dispatched more than 400 officers. In all, they arrested 184 people across six dens in Changsha County and in Yuelu, Tianxin and Yuhua districts of Changsha City. At time of writing, the County Police had taken criminal coercive measures against 132 people.
The live-broadcast platform is just one scam of many in China seeking to take advantage of the country’s imbalanced gender ratio. The long-held preference for baby boys means that there are many more young Chinese men than women. According to Statista, in the prime, marrying-age group of 20-24 years old, there were 114.61 men for every 100 women in 2019.
The problem is also not going away any time soon. In the younger age groups, the imbalance is even more pronounced; there are now almost 20 percent more boys than girls in the 10-14 age group.
