"The height can be increased by 5 to 8 centimeters under the age of 20, by 4 to 7 centimeters between the ages of 20 and 25, and by 4 to 6 centimeters between the ages of 25 and 28."

"High-tech" blessing

launches

new marketing model of " genetic testing + service + gifts"

learns "lessons" from peers and constantly "upgrades" fraud methods

...

faces heavy disguises

The prosecutor started with the "genetic test report"

Uncovering the fog of high-tech "blessed" heightening fraud

"Those under 20 years old can increase their height by 5 to 8 centimeters. The height can be increased by 4 to 7 centimeters between the ages of 20 and 25, and the height can be increased by 4 to 6 centimeters between the ages of 25 and 28. "... They use "scientific" cloaks such as genetic testing and national patents to tailor scams to teenagers who are eager to increase their height. , promoted and sold "height-increasing packages" of "height-increasing services + special effects gifts" through the Internet, defrauding 13,239 victims of more than 56.33 million yuan in more than two years. Recently, the fraud case involving Wu Mouqiang and 60 other people handled by the Dafeng District Procuratorate in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province was selected as a typical case of the Supreme People's Procuratorate in combating telecommunications network fraud and related crimes. Then it was kicked off.

was blessed with "high technology" and learned "lessons" from its peers to continuously "upgrade" its fraud methods... Faced with numerous disguises, the prosecutors started with the confusing "genetic test report" and "national patent" and uncovered the story. The true face of a high-tech company.

"What I sell is not medicine,

it is a professional height-increasing service."

In December 2019, Xiao Wang, a high school student in Dafeng, Yancheng, reported to the public security organ that he had purchased Guangzhou Zhugao Health Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " "Zhugao Company") a 2,850 yuan height-increasing service, I applied for a refund because it was ineffective, but was blocked by the company. Xiao Wang also said that many people in the complaint group he joined had encountered similar situations. Based on preliminary clues, the public security organs believed that the company was suspected of fraud and arrested Wu Mouqiang, the legal representative of Zhugao Company, and other criminal suspects. In January 2020, the public security organs requested the Dafeng District Procuratorate of Yancheng City to approve the arrest of 117 people including Wu Mouqiang on suspicion of fraud.

Gentleness is the first impression given by Wu Mouqiang, the legal representative of Zhugao Company. Settled in the business incubator "Silicon Valley", he always talks about high-tech, and invites experts and scholars to the platform. The doctor's personal qualifications and experience give him the aura of a professional. After being captured by the public security organs, Wu Mouqiang has made "zero confession".

"I never said that what I sell is height-increasing medicine. It is food. It is clearly written on the packaging and it is a gift. What I sell is height-increasing services. We have a professional team to provide one-on-one personalized guidance to customers. The data on exercise, diet, sleep, and background increase are all from real cases. How could you think we are a fraud..." On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2021, Wu Mouqiang answered slowly when faced with the prosecutor's interrogation.

Is this really the case? Faced with this "hard nut", the court established a task force including the deputy prosecutor in charge, two permanent prosecutors, and three assistant prosecutors. Members of the task force went to 8 detention centers and interrogated 117 criminal suspects. They also reviewed more than 500,000 electronic evidence including each suspect’s mobile phone WeChat chat records, Baidu Tieba replies, and 4 official marketing accounts of the company. strip. As expected, the truth is hidden in the "evolutionary history of marketing models" of Zhugao Company.

Ordinary food is packaged into collagen D tablet candies with the effect of increasing collagen.

In 2016, Wu Mouqiang registered and established a Gao Gao Company, selling compressed tablets of " Polygonatum Galangal" and promoting them as drugs that can help increase height. As the country tightens control over drugs, the company Zhonggao has changed its propaganda, claiming that it sells special foods that can help increase height.In 2017, Wu Mouqiang changed his marketing model and introduced a service concept. He changed the Polygonatum galangum tablets, amino acid solid drinks, and collagen D tablet candies, which were originally sold for hundreds or thousands of yuan, to free gifts, and at the same time, he made The original sales staff have transformed into health managers , nutritionists , athletes, etc. to provide customers with one-on-one "height-increasing services" and provide "professional" guidance on customers' rest, diet, exercise, etc.

"The most important reason for the change in the company's marketing model is that its peers have been cracked down on. The previous model of selling ineffective drugs and food was illegal, but sales services are invisible, and there are certain natural laws for teenagers to grow taller. As long as If some, or even a very small number of people, grow taller, the company can take advantage of the effectiveness of its marketing services to commit fraud." Shi Mou, the sales leader of Zhugao Company, truthfully confessed, "When there are customers who want to come for inspection, The company informed the short salesmen not to let them go to the reception area, otherwise The secret is revealed. The Polygonatum galangal tablets produced by the company "

" are actually ordinary food. The cost price is 9.8 yuan and sold to consumers for 580 yuan. The cost price of the amino acid solid drink is 18 yuan per can, and the sales price is 18 yuan. It is 998 yuan; the cost price of collagen D tablet candy is 23 yuan per box, and the sales price is 1,790 yuan per box..." The confessions of Zhugao Company warehouse manager Yu and others confirmed that no matter how the marketing model changes, Zhugao Company essentially commits fraud by selling ineffective products at high prices.

Uncovering the genetic testing report

In 2018, in order to increase the company’s sense of technology and confusion, Wu Mouqiang took the initiative to cooperate with a genetic testing laboratory and launched a new marketing model of “genetic testing + services + gifts”.

“In 2019, I searched for information about Zhugao Company on the Internet, and added their company’s teacher Yang’s WeChat account. Under her recommendation, I purchased a 3,150 yuan Zhugao service package including genetic testing, including a genetic testing box and three bottles of Polygonatum Galangal tablets later, in Yang. Following the teacher’s recommendation, I added the WeChat account of Teacher Ma from the Institute for Higher Education. Teacher Ma interpreted the genetic test report and said that I still have room to grow and can grow to 172 centimeters, but my bone density is relatively low and I need to buy collagen..." In the process of Xiao Wang being deceived, the genetic test report was the high-tech "blessing" that the victim believed could increase his height.

The prosecutor looked through the genetic test report and found that the oral saliva genetic test can not only measure trace elements such as calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, etc. in the body of the test subject, but can also measure the strength, explosive power, sleep time and quality of the test subject. , exercise recovery, ventilation rate... But the most critical information is that a certain indicator of the detected object is lower than the normal level.

To uncover the truth behind this full page of gene locus introduction, professional outsiders are needed to help. On the one hand, the prosecutor asked the investigative agency to introduce forensic doctors to participate in the interrogation and conduct surprise interrogations of the genetic testers. On the other hand, they went to Suzhou University to find professional professors to answer questions. At the same time, they also looked for clues from the WeChat chat records during the transaction between the two parties.

"This test is all about children whose height is not up to standard, but the test results are all normal." "The customer's height is not up to standard. There must be some abnormalities in some items. Please modify it."... The chat record shows that as Liu, a senior executive of the company, established a "Group Report Interpretation Group" with the inspection staff. After discovering that the first dozen test reports were all normal, Liu immediately asked the testing company to change the report, and the genetic testing personnel immediately tampered with the test sites and reports by "temporarily changing sites" and "manually issuing reports." In order to cater to the marketing needs of Zhugao Company, the genetic testers also agreed with Liu and others to "replace the normal sites with abnormal recessive sites (that is, most people fail the test)" and "not mark the normal intervals" etc. . As the confessions of the genetic testers were broken, the procuratorate asked the investigative agency to file a case against the two genetic testers.

Wu Mouqiang’s product, Polygonatum galangal tablets, which he has always claimed is a national patent product, has been revealed under the prosecutor’s investigation."You said Polygonatum galangum tablets are a national patent. How come it is not found in the Chinese patent query system?" Wu Mouqiang hesitated for a long time and said: "We really have a patent. It is an electronic monitoring system we developed that can track, analyze and help High crowd data. "The prosecutors found by querying the official website of China Copyright Protection Center that this "patent" is the software copyright of the system, and they used it to confuse the public.

As the review deepened, prosecutors noticed that Zhugao's fraud methods were very subtle. For some employees who join the company through formal recruitment websites and have been employed for a short time, it is difficult to discover the fraudulent nature of the company in the early stages of employment. During the review and arrest stage, the procuratorate decided not to approve the arrest of 57 marketers who had been employed for a short period of time, committed low amounts of crime, and had relatively minor crimes. They also decided not to approve the arrest of 57 marketers who had experienced the evolution of the company’s crime model, fabricated false cases, falsely interpreted genetic reports, and committed huge crimes. The arrest and prosecution of 60 suspects were approved.

The trap behind “personalized services”

In June 2020, the public security agency transferred the case to the procuratorate for review and prosecution. During the review and prosecution process, the case handling team gained a deeper understanding of the structure, hierarchy, departments, and staffing of Zhugao Company. In this huge criminal group, Wu Mouqiang, as the actual controller of Zhugao Company, exercises overall control over the company's organizational structure, marketing model, people, property and assets. The company consists of the President's Office, Sales Department, Advertising Department, Network Department, Service Department, Warehousing Department and other departments.

As the "front-line departments" that deal directly with customers, the sales department and service department have the largest number of personnel. Wu Mouqiang hired more than 100 sales staff with fixed salaries and step commissions, and Shi Mou and other 7 people served as sales leaders. The "Teacher Yang" and others who lured Xiao Wang into being deceived were first-time salesmen. They fabricated themselves as "advancing consultants" of the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Higher Education Research, and sent successful cases, False information such as product patents and product efficacy are used to induce customers to purchase the basic "Zhonggao" package of Zhugao Company.

After the customer purchases, the initial purchase salesperson will push the consumer's information to the repurchase salesperson, who will create a customer, sales instructor, health manager, nutritionist, sportsman, physician, etc. Chat group.

These so-called health managers, nutritionists, sports experts, and doctors are actually impersonated by people recruited by the company’s service department without any qualifications or experience. They pushed one-on-one "personalized services" to customers in accordance with the fixed service template drawn up by the company, and used the excuses of "low bone density" and "lower desire for protein intake than the average person" in the tampered genetic test report to persuade them to Customers buy more expensive amino acid solid drinks, collagen D tablet candies and other height-increasing products. In July 2020, the procuratorate prosecuted 60 suspects including Wu Mouqiang on suspicion of fraud.

“This is a civil dispute, not criminal fraud. The procuratorate’s use of criminal means to intervene in civil disputes is a serious departure from the current purpose of protecting private enterprises...” “The sales staff subjectively do not know that the company is a fraud company...” This case is at best the crime of false advertising of and ..." During the six-day trial, the defense team put forward its defense opinions.

The public prosecutor traced the process and reasons for the "deformation" of Zhugao Company's marketing model. Genetic testers and Zhugao Company executives fabricated false genetic reports to cater to the needs of fraud. Marketers fabricated false height increase cases and falsely interpreted genetic report routines to trick customers into purchasing invalid products. "True" to provide evidence, demonstrate evidence, cross-examine and defend against fraud and other aspects. In the end, the court sentenced Wu Mouqiang to fourteen years in prison and a fine of 3 million yuan for fraud; the other 59 defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 12 years to two years, and each was fined 90,000 yuan. Fines ranging from NT$ to NT$2 million. Some of the defendants appealed, and after trial, the Yancheng City Intermediate Court adjusted the sentencing of one accomplice based on the ultimately determined amount of fraud, while rejecting the appeals of other defendants and upholding the original verdict.

Multiple parties work together to promote litigation source management

Why are frauds using health care, medical beauty , growth and other projects continued to be banned? Why do victims neither defend their civil rights nor go to the police after discovering that they have been deceived?

The Dafeng District Procuratorate conducted an analysis of marketing-type telecommunications fraud cases in recent years and found that the health care product market, cloaked in technology, health care, etc., has provided breeding ground for this type of fraud, and false advertising has further expanded the scope and scale of the fraud. . In response to the weak links in social governance exposed by this case, the Dafeng District Procuratorate issued procuratorial suggestions to the district public security, market supervision and management, radio and television and other regulatory units, recommending that supervision be strengthened and the use of the Internet to publish false health product advertisements be seriously investigated and punished. Four special inspection and rectification activities were carried out on special effects and pseudo-technical products such as breast enlargement, weight loss, and height-enhancing products, and a number of cases of health product pyramid schemes, pension fraud, and false advertising series were investigated and dealt with.

In health care and medical beauty fraud cases, scammers often have some important personal information of the victims, so as to conduct "precise" fraud. "The inadvertent leakage and illegal trading of personal information are crucial in fraud crimes. Without this information, the fraud process will be useless and full of flaws." said Ge Shujun, assistant prosecutor of the First Prosecution Department of the Dafeng District Procuratorate. . Since the "Clean Internet" special campaign, the Dafeng District Procuratorate has held three joint meetings with the District Cyberspace Affairs Office, Public Security Bureau, Education Bureau, Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and other units, and discussed the campus "smart platform", off-campus training institutions, retired employees Personal information security has formed special rectification plans and actions to strictly prevent the leakage of personal information of special groups of people.

The procuratorate promotes the rule of law into campus activities and enhances the anti-fraud awareness and ability of young students in school.

Procuratorates carry out anti-fraud propaganda on a regular basis

Whoever enforces the law will spread the law. In response to the shortcomings exposed by this case in the awareness of anti-fraud identification and rights protection among teenagers and parents, the Dafeng District Procuratorate, in conjunction with the duties of the deputy principal of the rule of law, conducted case lectures in primary schools and middle schools throughout the district to vividly teach children how to identify and prevent fraud. The story about the rule of law of fraud can enhance the anti-fraud awareness and ability of young school students, so as to stay away from the traps of fraud criminals. Recently, the case-handling story told by the prosecutor handling the case was shortlisted as an outstanding work by the Yancheng City Procuratorate's "New Era Prosecution Story Collection" and was recognized by the National People's Congress deputies and CPPCC members. (Procuratorial Daily Guan Ying Wang Wei)