College students fall into the trap of online game proxy fraud again, and the scammer is a junior high school student

After spending more than 10,000 yuan in one night on online game boosters who turned out to be scammers, a post-80s college student fell into a trap set by a post-90s junior high school dropout.

Recently, the People's Court of Chongren County, Jiangxi Province announced the first case of internet game fraud. The court sentenced Zheng to six months in prison and fined him 3000 yuan for committing fraud. Addicted to online games and looking for boosters,

Mr. Chen, a post-80s male from Chongren, Jiangxi, is a university graduate with a passion for online gaming.

On the evening of April 9th, while playing "The Legend of Tian Long" on the telecommunications section of the game, Mr. Chen found leveling up too slow and tiring, so he decided to hire a booster to help level up his character and get some equipment. He noticed a QQ contact (nickname "Feiyu Booster Customer Service") posted in the game, added them as a QQ friend, and after chatting online, they agreed on a price of 650 yuan to level up his character from level 50 to 102, and also include gifts such as level 70 throwing weapons, combination 5, 95 dragon baby, and level 102 divine weapon.

At around 9 pm that night, Mr. Chen transferred 650 yuan from his already activated online banking Construction Bank card account to the designated Construction Bank account of "Feiyu Booster Customer Service." Then, Mr. Chen contacted "Feiyu Booster Customer Service" via QQ to inform them of the transfer.

"Feiyu Booster Customer Service" replied that Mr. Chen's 650 yuan transfer was not processed due to lack of change, and in order to activate the account, he must transfer double the change amount, which is 1302 yuan, through the same online bank, and then the excess money will be refunded. Falling into the scam

Believing this to be true, at around 9:20 pm, Mr. Chen transferred 1302 yuan via online banking. Afterward, "Feiyu Booster Customer Service" told Mr. Chen that they had already asked the finance department manager to check the accounts.

Soon, someone claiming to be the finance department manager called Mr. Chen, stating that he must purchase a network transaction card in order to get the refund of the 1302 yuan previously transferred, but purchasing the transaction card would cost another 1412 yuan. Only by doing this could they verify the two previous transfers totaling 1952 yuan.

Subsequently, Mr. Chen transferred another 1412 yuan from his online banking card and contacted "Feiyu Booster Customer Service." Not long after, "Feiyu Booster Customer Service" confirmed receiving Mr. Chen's total payment of 3364 yuan and issued him a network transaction card, replying that they would soon process the refund of the excess 2714 yuan.

At around 10 pm, "Feiyu Booster Customer Service" informed Mr. Chen that the system refund was unsuccessful and each refund must reach over 5000 yuan to be processed. To refund 2714 yuan, another 2300 yuan must be transferred, reaching a total of 5000 yuan before it can be refunded all at once.

About fifteen minutes later, Mr. Chen again transferred 2702 yuan to the original designated Construction Bank account. "Feiyu Booster Customer Service" replied that the 2702 yuan did not meet the automatic refund procedure and only a transfer of 2302 yuan would trigger an automatic refund. They explained that the 2702 yuan would be automatically frozen by the system, and to unfreeze it, double the amount, i.e., 5404 yuan, must be transferred for an automatic refund.

Subsequently, due to insufficient funds in his online banking card, Mr. Chen only transferred 2302 yuan. However, after checking the accounts, "Feiyu Booster Customer Service" told Mr. Chen that this method wouldn't work and used the excuse of being about to finish work, suggesting they contact by phone later.

One person playing multiple roles defrauded over ten thousand yuan

At around 11 pm, a person claiming to be "Manager Wang" called Mr. Chen, saying that he would handle the refund, but mentioned that he wasn't on duty currently and would start working a few hours later.

At around 2 am the next morning, "Manager Wang" called Mr. Chen and said that transferring another 2520 yuan would allow the return of the frozen 5000 yuan. Thus, at around 8:45 am, Mr. Chen transferred another 2520 yuan to a newly designated Agricultural Bank account and confirmed the transfer via phone with "Manager Wang." This time, "Manager Wang" said that since no change was transferred, the funds were frozen again, and to resolve the issue, another 5040 yuan must be transferred to return the entire amount.

At this point, since Mr. Chen had no more money left on his card, he didn't make any further transfers. Soon after, "Manager Wang" called Mr. Chen from another phone number, claiming to have thought of a way to refund the money by transferring another 2500 yuan, and sent a text message with another designated bank account for the transfer.

At this moment, Mr. Chen realized he had been scammed, but all the money in his card had been taken, resulting in a financial loss of 10,888 yuan. He then reported the incident to the police.

On May 18th, the police arrested the suspect Zheng in Qiantang Town, Potou District, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province. It was confirmed that Zheng was born in October 1992 in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, with only a junior high school education and unemployed, living in Qing Shan Zhong Village, Qiantang Town, Potou District, Zhanjiang City.

During police interrogation, Zheng confessed to impersonating "Feiyu Booster Customer Service" and defrauding others of 10,888 yuan. Zheng also admitted that the so-called "Feiyu Booster Customer Service," "Finance Department Manager," and "Manager Wang" were all played by himself using different phone numbers to avoid arousing Mr. Chen's suspicion, and all the stolen money was spent on shopping and eating out. After the incident, Zheng's relatives compensated the victim Mr. Chen with the full amount of 10,888 yuan.

After deliberation, the first-instance court ruled that defendant Zheng committed fraud with the intention of illegal possession, defrauding others of a total of 10,888 yuan, constituting a significant amount. His actions constituted the crime of fraud. The prosecution's charges were upheld. Given Zheng's relatively good attitude towards confession, being a first-time offender, and actively returning the stolen goods after the incident, the court decided to impose a lenient sentence according to law.

Behind the story

The game boosting industry, which has coexisted with online games, still operates in a gray area. In the absence of regulation and legal constraints, boosting has become a vehicle for many criminals to commit fraud. Players harboring dreams of becoming experts may fall into traps if they fail to remain vigilant, ultimately accepting the bitter reality of their shattered dreams.