"How much does 48 grams of gold cost in an offline gold store? See you in my live broadcast today. The price is only 3 digits, no more than a thousand. 999 pure gold, solid real gold, you can have a chance in the live broadcast room."

"How much does 48 grams of gold cost in an offline gold store? See you in my live broadcast today. The price is only 3 digits, no more than a thousand. 999 pure gold, solid real gold, you can have a chance in the live broadcast room." On Douyin On the platform, Thousand Pure Gold is only 199 yuan, and it also supports live broadcasts of returns within 7 days without any reason, attracting a large number of netizens to place orders.

Can a gold bracelet bought at a low price really withstand the "fire test"? On March 28, a reporter from Upstream News (report email: cnshangyou@163.com) learned from the Public Security Bureau of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province that recently, the bureau cracked two consecutive fraud cases of selling fake gold in Douyin live broadcast rooms, with a total value of More than 10 million yuan. The purchase price of these so-called gold bracelets is as low as 8.5 yuan each, and the material is mostly copper.

▲Fraud gangs mostly use words and low-price sales to induce consumers. Image source/Wuxi Police

In November and December 2021, the Douyin E-commerce Quality Protection Center provided clues to the Wuxi police: Someone registered multiple stores on the Douyin platform and used Douyin live broadcast to bring goods, confusing the real ones. Rings, necklaces, bracelets and other accessories made of other metals were falsely called 999 pure gold in the live broadcast, luring viewers to buy them at a low price.

"We watched many live broadcasts and found that two criminal gangs committed fraud. The criminals are very vigilant and change the online live broadcast room and Douyin platform store from time to time." According to the policeman handling the case, from December 2021 to 2022 In January, the police arrested 19 people involved in two fraud gangs in Changchun, Jilin, Shantou, Guangdong, and Zhaoqing. After review, it was found that since April 2020, the criminal suspect Zhang, together with Wu and others, opened studios in Shantou and Guangzhou, Guangdong. In order to avoid the risk of being banned, they successively registered 31 Douyin platform stores and contacted Cheng to convene The anchor sells fake gold jewelry under the guise of buying at low prices such as "199 yuan" and "299 yuan" through live broadcasts with goods. The arrest video obtained by

upstream journalists showed that fake gold jewelry such as bracelets, necklaces, and rings were stored in the live streaming studios of Zhang and Su, two fraud gangs. On-site inspection by the police found that the fake gold jewelry was hard in texture and had a crisp sound when struck, which was very different from gold.

▲Multiple fraud gang suspects were arrested and brought to justice. Image source/Wuxi Police The person in charge of the

live broadcast room confessed that during the live broadcast, they would use words such as the opening premiere and company benefits to induce consumers, and would support offline store inspections, 7-day no-reason returns, shipping insurance and other "benefits" "Let consumers place orders with confidence. In fact, the identification evidence issued were all fake certificates. The chat records between the fraud gang and upstream and downstream suppliers show that the appraisal certificates have different templates, and the appraisal can be issued based on the pictures provided by the merchants. Each certificate costs 0.7 yuan. The " thousand pure gold " bracelets are mostly made of brass . The words "pure gold" and "999" can be engraved on the jewelry. The purchase price ranges from 8.5 yuan to 20 to 30 yuan.

Suspect Su said that at the end of 2020, he and his friends jointly funded a jewelry business in the Douyin live broadcast room. Due to poor business, around March 2021, the content of the live broadcast was changed from selling jewelry to selling fake gold jewelry. Anchors purchase relevant live broadcast equipment and sell other metal jewelry to customers in the live broadcast room as pure gold. The criminal gang rented an office space in Sihui City, Guangdong Province as a live broadcast room. The internal division of labor was clear. Su was responsible for operations and the purchase and delivery of fake gold. Ma was responsible for recruiting employees, customer service and managing anchor personnel. He was contacted to make fake appraisals. Certificate. In order to avoid being traced by the police and the platform, Su used the identities of relatives and employees to register a business license, thereby registering a related Douyin store. After the store was closed, he used the new license to open the store again to avoid crackdowns.

"We don't talk about the price of gold per gram, just the price in the live broadcast room. The cost of obtaining a certificate is high, and later it is no longer worthy of the certificate. We also consulted and said that as long as it is not sold at the price of real gold, it is not illegal." Su explain.

“Each anchor has a complete set of ‘talking skills’ prompts in front of him during the live broadcast. In addition, a large number of ‘trolls’ are organized to create a popular atmosphere, and many consumers fall into the ‘trap’."The police handling the case said that 19 criminal suspects have been arrested so far, with a total value of more than 10 million yuan involved, and more than 60,000 orders transacted. The police reminded consumers to learn more about the texture, function, quality standards, etc. of the goods when shopping in the live broadcast room. For relevant information, if you are accidentally deceived, please keep your shopping information and other evidence and seek help from the police in time.

Upstream News Reporter Shi Tingting