After a long silence, Eggshell Apartment was once again active in the public eye, the reason was. In a tenant's rights protection group, the last chat record was still at the end of 2021, and someone sent a happy New Year emoticon package.

Source: Qianjiang Evening News

has been silent for a long time,

Eggshell Apartment has once again become active in the public eye,

The reason is that

"can be refunded (financial)".

In a tenant's rights protection group, the last chat record was still at the end of 2021, and someone sent a happy New Year emoticon package. After half a year, a message that "I received a call for rent from Eggshell Apartment" made the group active again. Then, more and more people received calls for "refunding the rent".

A originally slim hope suddenly had news of recovery, which made people feel moved.

But is this true? Some people fell into a deeper vortex because of this. This year's Dragon Boat Festival, Hangzhou police received a report of suspected fraud of withdrawing the lease of Eggshell Apartment. The victim was Dr. Chen Mai (pseudonym), a scientific researcher from a university. Chen Mai originally had a rent of 10,000 yuan at Eggshell Apartment and did not refund it, but this time he encountered it, he paid another 150,000 yuan.

Anti-fraud propaganda is overwhelming, why are there still people being deceived? After an investigation by Qianjiang Evening News and Hours News reporters found that Chen Mai’s experience may give us some warnings.

From a cross-border call to ask you to add QQ group to private chat

"Hello, is it a tenant of Eggshell Apartment? Now you have to apply for a refund." A phone call from abroad gave the rent that had not been withdrawn suddenly hope.

The "customer service" on the other end of the phone was talking about Mandarin , which was not standard. He asked these tenants to add the customer service's QQ. Xiaonan (pseudonym) wrote that he has been in Hangzhou for five years and started moving into the shared house of Eggshell Apartment in 2018, with a monthly rent of 1,500 yuan.

At the end of 2020, Eggshell Apartment "breathed". Xiaonan just paid the rent on a quarterly basis a month ago, with a rent plus a deposit of more than 5,000 yuan, so he stayed in the app that he would never log in. Xiaonan and the landlord privately renewed for two months, and the landlord raised the price three times in two months. Later, the landlord drove Xiaonan out of the room less than 10 square meters on the grounds that he wanted to make a new partition.

Xiaonan has successively added some rights protection groups. At first, the group was very active, but later there was no sound.

Xiao Nan was a little excited when he received this call, "I do have more than 5,000 yuan in ' Eggshell ', thank you for returning it to me." The "customer service" on the other end of the phone urged him to add QQ quickly and hung up the phone.

added QQ, and Xiaonan was pulled into a group called "Eggshell Refund Rent". There were 83 people in the group, and at first, not all of them were banned from speaking. Some people suspected that this was a "new pit", but soon, some people in the group said that they had "successfully refunded", and then the administrator activated the ban on all staff.

"Customer Service" said that Eggshell Apartment has been acquired, and the payment needs to be made through the cooperative third-party platform XXX. The tenant needs to inject funds into the encrypted account. After the process is over, it can withdraw to the bank card bound by the tenant, and at the same time, it also provides 3 options.

"Customer Service" proposes three refund plans.

Screenshot of Xiaonan and "Customer Service", the acquisition of Eggshell property rights claimed by "Customer Service" is suspected to be false news.

"Because there are many people joining the group, only 20 users will be processed every day to cancel the rent. Users who have not replied, please wait patiently. In addition, users who need to apply for a cancellation, please take the initiative to add the salesperson QQ and apply for a refund." Xiaonan found that when asked about the refund plan in the group, no one paid attention to him, and he must chat with the salesperson privately before accepting it.

At this time, Xiaonan has a high probability of confirming that the other party is a liar. He wanted to try out what step he could go in the end, so he chose the second plan of "injecting 35% of the refund principal" and sent a confirmation to the customer service. "Customer Service" sent him a website, asking him to register an account, and on the user consultation page of the website, he asked Xiaonan to transfer money to a bank account.

"I was still lucky at that time. What if I succeeded in retreating, what if I was not a liar. But rationality still made me restrain myself and didn't charge money in it." Xiaonan said.

From "equal hedging trading volume" to "tax audit error"

Xiaonan stopped at the last step, but Chen Mai was not so lucky. customers require the injection of funds only the first step, and there are more routines to tempt you to make further payments.

Dr. Chen Mai is doing scientific research in a university in Hangzhou. In 2019, he rented a single room in an old community near the school using the Eggshell App. In July 2020, the rent expired and he renewed it for another year, but after living there for less than three months, he encountered a "thunder". Eggshell Apartment still owed him more than 10,000 yuan in rent.

completed the first transaction of 5,218 yuan, less than 10 minutes apart. Customer service reported that due to the problem of the website withdrawal process, it is necessary to provide another "equal hedging transaction volume" to successfully withdraw. Chen Mai was confused and began to carefully check the various pages on the "IDG" website, which could run normally and looked more "regular". So he followed the instructions and made a second sum of money - 16,698 yuan.

At this time, Chen Mai was still immersed in the excitement of withdrawing money immediately, but there was a problem with the payment. The customer service told Chen Mai that because he entered an extra number when he transferred the money, the payment failed and the remittance funds were frozen. He needed a thawing certificate and a deposit of 50,000 yuan to thaw smoothly. The other party sent a document " China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission ". Chen Mai carefully checked the head of the column and the chapter in the lower right corner, feeling that there was no problem. But at this time, the money in his card was no longer 50,000, and he transferred some money from another card. Just as he was raising money, the other party frequently sent messages reminding Chen Mai to send money as soon as possible, otherwise his refund quota would be cancelled.

"CBRC Document" sent to Chen Mai by "Customer Service".

Chen Mai collected 50,000 yuan and hit it. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the money was finally fine. But the other party immediately informed him that because his account transaction volume increased, it was necessary to make another "equal hedging transaction volume" to withdraw. Chen Mai realized something was wrong at this time. For the sake of the remaining slim hope, he made the last 50,000 yuan. Sure enough, the money still did not arrive, and there was a "new problem" again - a tax audit error occurred, and the other party sent a tax document asking Chen Mai to inject the tax money into the account.

Cash withdrawal error notification received by Chen Mai.

Chen Mai immediately went downstairs to report the case. It only takes 3 minutes to walk from home to the police station. On the way, the other party was constantly urging him to remit money. Chen Mai wanted to continue dealing with the other party and get more clues when reporting the case. He told the other party that he had insufficient money and needed to ask his relatives to borrow money. The other party asked him how much balance he had in his card and urged Chen Mai to continue transferring the money.

However, although Chen Mai has reported the case in time and the police immediately freeze Chen Mai's bank account transferred by him, the money in the card has been transferred, and the losses caused are difficult to recover.

From "the impulse to try" to "gambler mentality"

"They taught me a lesson." Chen Mai said with a wry smile that he has been staying in colleges and universities for scientific research after graduating from a doctorate. He never touched fund stocks, nor was he greedy for small gains. The community's bulletin board often has various anti-fraud propaganda. He thought that if he didn't come into contact with these, he would never encounter them.

However, this eggshell refund made Chen Mai feel "too real". Chen Mai said when taking the transcript that he had believed in the other party's identity from the beginning because the other party reported the amount that Eggshell owed him correctly. But Chen Mai later recalled that the other party had never taken the initiative to tell him his name and refund amount, "They may only know one phone number," Chen Mai said.

Xiao Nan even received a private chat from two "tenants" from the refund group. The other party asked Xiao Nan as soon as he came up, did you go and handle it? Xiaonan said not to be impulsive and asked the other party to go to the police station to check. He began to express his concern that he was also worried that the money would not be able to come in or out. Later, the payment screenshot sent by the other party said, "A dead horse is a living horse."Xiaonan thought the other party must have been cheated, but soon after, the other party sent a screenshot of the successful refund and said, "Eggshell has a conscience at last."

Xiaonan clicked into the tenant's space, which contained photos and could share life. No matter how you look, it looks like a real person account. It was also this private chat that made Xiao Nan want to continue the next step. "What if it is true, what if it is true, will my money be settled?"

"The scammers specifically chose to cheat during the Dragon Boat Festival. He knew that everyone was idle at that time and would not be very clear-headed." Xiao Nan and Chen Mai mentioned that because it was the Dragon Boat Festival, they were on vacation, so they lost their usual vigilance. Although Xiaonan did not pay in the end, , he described his mentality when he was hesitating whether to pay in the end as a "gambler mentality". He had the urge to try it out even though he knew it was unlikely, "It's very strange. In that atmosphere, I felt that I should give it a try."

Chen Mai re-checked the account he entered when he transferred the second money and found that he had actually made no mistakes. But in that situation, he felt that he had been being taken away, only caring about checking the other party's website and documents sent, and never doubting the other party's identity at all. If hadn't paid too many times in batches, he might have never reacted. "The other party has been urging me, and it only took less than an hour to transfer the four sums of money. It was difficult to have time to calm down and think at that time," said Chen Mai.

From protecting rights to sharing experiences of being cheated on social software

Chen Mai did not tell anyone around him about the news of being cheated. "I do have too little social experience and it's easy to trust others," he concluded.

Chen Mai wants to treat the 150,000 yuan he was cheated as a "tuition fee". He also downloaded the anti-fraud app on his mobile phone, but he felt that everything was a way to make up for the loss. "It's too late. After this, I will never be deceived again," he said.

Xiaonan received another call from "Eggshell Apartment to withdraw the rent" on the third day after almost being cheated. This time, Xiaonan did not thank the other party anymore, but urged the other party to add QQ and attract the group. After joined the group, Xiaonan quickly said, "There are all supporters in the group", and was then moved out of the group chat by the administrator.

Xiaonan reminds everyone that this is a scam and has been removed from the group chat.

Xiaonan was unwilling to give up, and reported the bank card number that the other party asked to transfer to the bank and told the other party that the account was suspected of fraud. As a result, the bank told them that they had no right to freeze their accounts and asked Xiaonan to call the police.

Xiao Nan went to the police station again, and the police told him that the case could not be filed without actually being cheated. Xiaonan can only find the long-awaited Eggshell rights protection group to remind tenants that this is a scam.

Chen Mai was cheated is not an isolated case. On social apps such as Xiaohongshu and Zhihu , many people also talked about their experience of being cheated.

A tenant from Jiangsu said that Eggshell originally owed him only 5,000 yuan in rent, but he was eventually cheated of 50,000 yuan. A young lawyer from Beijing was cheated of more than 6,000 yuan.

Someone has also seen through this scam and exposed the entire scam. "It's a one to save", Xiaohongshu blogger "Freelanddu" topped the exposed post, more than 200 people liked it, and many tenants reported in the comment area that they encountered the same fraud routine.

The anti-fraud police officer in charge of Chen Mai's case told reporters that as long as is a refund that is first paid, it is a scam. Whether it is Eggshell Apartment's rent refund or express refund, it is the same fraud routine. When receiving such information, you must be cautious and cautious.

"Most of the people who chose to live in Eggshell Apartment are young people who have not been graduated. I think when it was 'storm', many people were already kicked out of their houses, unable to refund their rent, and even hindered the landlord's limit. And this time it was a 'rental refund fraud'. We don't know why the scammers can accurately grasp the phone number of us tenants. We are already so difficult." Xiao Nan sighed.

Source: Qianjiang Evening News·Hours News Reporter Liu Qiaoyan