‘Killing Pigs’ Inside Chinese Online Gambling Part 2

The second installment of life as an illegal online gambling scammer translated from Phoenix Weekly.

Yang Fuchun gave up working as a spinach dog after half a month. “I can’t do this kind of hurtful thing. Although I am poor now and owe money to others, I can’t earn money like that with my conscience.”

Three other people managed to escape and found an immigration agent who handled their passport issues. After registering with the immigration office, they stayed in a rental house, but the company posted a notice on the Internet. A reward of 25,000 yuan ($3,500) was offered to catch them. The immigration agent who was supposed to be helping immediately responded online: “Three people came today.” The next day, the company sent people to take them back.

“In the dormitory, they hit them in front of me. One of them was beaten.” Yang Fuchun said, “This is to show me, let me know the consequences of running away. In fact, I have lost money, waiting for a passport. “

The “killing pig” company hierarchy is like a pyramid. The boss of each company are usually from Fujian province, Chen Jingyu said, “There are many companies in the yard. I often see Bentley and Rolls Royce cars parked, but I have never seen a big boss.”

The second layer is the management manager; the third is the programmer and the team leader; the last layer is the “spinach army”, and the places with the largest number of recruits are said to be Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, and Shandong.

There are two major chains in the “killing pig” industry chain, namely the snake head (Chinese mafia) selling labor and the complex cross-border financial system.

After half a month, Chen Jingyu repeatedly asked to resign. The boss asked him to pay 50,000 ($7000) redemption fees, and later it reduced to 30,000. He promised to pay the money after returning home. Three days later, under the “escort” of several people, and without any salary, he was taken to the Westport Airport, and was lucky enough to return home safely. He looked back at Cambodia and said with emotion, “They are all rushing to get rich overnight. The people who go to that place are no longer human.”

In fact, a large proportion of young people are being deceived simply because they need to make money. For example, Luo Xiaohu of Harbin lost his business. After owing 60,000 yuan, he went to work in Shenzhen, and then was tricked into going to Cambodia. Guangdong youth Yang Fuchun lost more than 500,000 ($70,000) on his business and wanted to go to the Philippines to make money. The snakeheads are looking for these type of young people.

Luo Xiaohu was in Shenzhen in the second half of 2018 working in the gaming industry.  The boss decided to take the staff to work in Southeast Asia. “It’s good to make money there” he was told. In 2019, his passport was arranged. On January 8, the first batch of 25 people were sent to Westport by the manager. Passports were taken away as soon as they arrived.

In the desolate area of ​​the suburbs, they began to learn the trade, and after more than 10 days, they were taken away by a car and entered another company, in a newly built 7-story building “Red Star International”. After more lectures they then started the “killing pigs” fraud.

Luo Xiaohu was not good at the job. In a month he only cheated 300 ($42) from two men by playing games. “That was a new company, the background has not been done well, the data was old and ful of mistakes.” he said.

However, after a month, they were transferred to a third company to do ordinary game sales. This time it was no longer “killing pig” and there was little money to be earned. In three months, they were “replaced” three times. “The company had more than 2,000 employees. I suspect that the boss sold them in batches.”

On April 20, the company deducted his salary and sent him back to Guangzhou. Luo Xiaohu immediately rushed back to his hometown in Harbin, and set up a business. He didn’t talk to his wife and parents about this encounter. “It’s already very good to come back. Just go through the experience and let it pass in the past.”

Upon returning to Lanzhou on July 30, Chen Jingyu called the horseman who had cheated him abroad. Ma Bing, a “snake head”, who deceives young people who want to earn money in China, and sends them to Cambodia.

The next day, he went to the police station to report the case. Chen Jingyu saw in the computer file that Ma Bing “has mental illness and long-term dementia.”

In fact, on the southern coast, there are many “snake heads”. Yang Fuchun decided to go to the Philippines to make gambling after seeing a recruitment video by the snake head “Ya Xuan”. Heavily in debt, he was told that the monthly salary was more than 10,000 ($1400), plus commissions.

It was not until he was flying over the South China Sea that he knew how prosperous the “spinach” industry was. “From Guangzhou to the Philippines, 70% of the planes are Chinese. After the plane signed the entry letter, the five people around me were looking for jobs from the Internet. At the airport, we were taken away by our respective bosses.”

Yang Fuchun later learned that after “dogs” got off the plane, and the passport was delivered to the company, the snake head “Ya Xuan” would receive a head fee of more than 6,000 yuan ($850) per person. “The ‘dog push’ is said to have recruited up to 20,000 people.

“Routine” – Precision strikes human weakness

The scam is generally divided into two parts, the first is the “chat hook”, the second is “the killing”. Looking for the target to be hooked, it is more difficult for the new recruits and tests the emotional intelligence of the person. However, the “speech” training, it is not difficult. The early “cultivating feelings” trick is crucial, and there are many skills to it.

“You want (the target) to think that you are not talking to him for money. Don’t ask for it, or inadvertently reveal, but hint- let the other person be curious, and then ask you, ask you to take him.” Chen Jingyu said, the teacher instructed them.

When the target asks what the scammer is doing, they reply “my side job.” “Our goal is to find people who don’t know about the business. If they are interested, they will have to play.”

They started chatting and cultivating their feelings for a few days. “If you don’t talk for a long time, the other person asks what you are doing. You say that my sideline is an investment. Looking at the stock market, today’s market is good, earning tens of thousands”.

After cultivating a relationship, “dogs” then ask the target if they want to play a few gambling games, pretend you have won a few and allow them to play and win a little. “There is an emotional foundation, and most people will get into the set. If you win once, don’t mention this, and continue to chat, so that she feels that winning is very cool. The next day she will take the initiative to ask, have you played today?”

Through social pictures, status and intimate conversations, “Dog Push” constructs a vivid and rich image in the minds of the target. The only thing to avoid is face to face meetings and video. Luo Xiaohu said, “It’s just dragging them along. You find various reasons, busy at work, or going on a business trip.”

To cope with the video demands from the other party, the most commonly used version of the story of “Dog Push” is, “My ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend died in a car accident with my video, so I vowed never to let people video me again. ” Yang Fuchun said “The company has more than a dozen reasons for you to edit, adapt, or make excuses yourself, just let the other party believe.”

The “killing pigs” scam routine, simply put, is to give the hooked people some money-making opportunities, win trust, and provoke the victim’s greed. When the victim is encouraged to bet a large amount, he will be stuck with various excuses. Invest in a larger amount, and so on. If the victim is a principal, it will bet on the bet and be caught in online loans. When the victim’s has been drained financially, or the finally sees through the scam, the procedure is terminated.

The core program of “killing pig” is referred to as “double vote”. It is the “mentor” of the group chat that guides the “double vote” process.

The victim enters the “investment group” (a gambling syndicate), which appears to show many people posting screenshots of big profits every day. After entering the “gaming website”, the target is encouraged to invest into the fake syndicate.

“Through the first three wins, the other party will feel that the instructor is really successful, knowing the tricks and loopholes of the gaming company, and cashing out from the platform.” Yang Fuchun said.

The target is then told the platform is now investigating the syndicate, so everyone must delete their previous chat records, otherwise they can not continue to invest, supposedly to fool the police if they investigate the syndicate.

At this point, the role of the “mentor” began to play. “Winning more than 10,000, he will say that an event that only takes place once a year, will allow the target to join as a VIP, if they make a bigger investment” Yang Fuchun said.

“Generally, I first figured out the actual property of the deceived person. If they can afford 100,000 ($14,000), double it to 200,000 yuan. 200,000 can be raised to about 500,000. If the deceived person is not in agreement, they (the scammer) will play emotional cards. It is the first step.

The spiel goes something like: “You have no money, I will help you, do you still have me? Baby! Is there still me?” In order to let the deceiver believe, the “mentor” will first put 100,000 on the platform account to increase the motivation and pressure of the other party to raise funds. Then the “mentor” starts the “violation code”, showing the platform has been manipulated. Being told that the company may close the account quickly, the target is given a short time window to ‘cheat’ the system by investing more to stall the company. “They then go crazy looking for money, taking loans, selling things” he explains.

Then, the “mentor” will provide at least ten online loan platforms. At this point, the second step is completed. “The average person has come to this step and has been fooled.”

In order to maintain the ruse, or delay the deduction, the instructor will propose about a larger stall, such as 2 million or 3 million. “He can take the initiative to transfer a part of his account, such as 300,000, 500,000 to the deceived, what about the remaining more than 1 million?

If the target falls for the trick, the money is taken and all correspondence closed down- the “killing pig” slaughter.

Some of the “mentors”, after completing the “killing pig” program, can still continue to maintain a good emotional connection with the deceived. “Let him feel that the mentor is also suffering huge losses, and he still owes hundreds of thousands too”

The Money

Most people, having knowingly gone along with a crime, will not go to the police. Yang Fuchun said, “It’s just a routine. This is fraud.”

Because of the huge profits, a larger gaming company often does not hesitate to pay for the latest technology. For example, the Fujian based boss Manila based Hongsheng Company, which was established less than half a year ago, wanted to buy a server.

A person familiar with the matter told Phoenix Weekly that many “killing pigs” companies, from Zhejiang technology companies, can buy servers in the United States, and some small trading programs can even be purchased on Taobao. After the establishment of the company, in addition to hiring programmers, equipment maintenance staff, the company also has to provide a series of soft and hard equipment for the “dog push”.

In Hongsheng Group, each “dog push” has 4 mobile phones, 8 micro-signals can be registered with the Philippine card, and there are 3 lightning simulators. The lightning simulator, similar to a built-in phone on a computer, can download a variety of apps.

In this way, each app has 3 accounts. Coupled with 4 QQ numbers, dog pushers can be transformed into multiple roles. “How many people and what kind of characters are packaged depends entirely on his own imagination.”

In Yang Fuchun’s company, the completion of “killing pigs”, “dog push” can be divided into multiple roles, up to a customer service to complete.

In the initial “packaging”, in order to enhance the realism of the characters, “dog push” generally sets the positioning of social software in the same city. After Zhou Hongliang, a teacher at Urumqi University, added a divorced young Zou Qiang’s WeChat, the other party shared the location in Tianjin Road, Urumqi, just across the street from Beijing Road; after Fuzhou Liu Yuqin met Liu Songjiang, he also found the Fuzhou positioning not long ago in the circle of friends.

After Zhou Hongliang contacted many IT youths, he realized that the black technology of the fraud company can not only change the positioning of social software, but also realize the voice change. “Becoming a male, a female, a Sichuan accent, a Cantonese…” When the deceived person knows that the scammers are abroad, they often wake up as if they were dreaming. Zhou Hongliang said with emotion, “In addition to playing bank cards, everything else is fake.”

When the police handle the case, they usually rely on the information flow and capital flow of both parties. Among them, the overseas “killing pig tray” company uses a variety of human and financial tools to set up a complex and hidden financial network.

Victims of “killing pigs” usually send funds into private accounts multiple times, and afterwards, it is difficult to find the final pool of funds based on these bank cards. After Lu Xunlin of Ningbo was defrauded of 1.8 million, he inquired about the ICBC card that was originally returned, and found that the account belonged to a rural woman in Shangrao, Jiangxi.

He called and the other party said he had not opened an account. However, the peasant woman also opened three leather bag companies. “The lawyer helped me find out that someone else used her ID card and opened a credit card. I also found this person, it is probably a special card card intermediary, and he also specializes in helping others handle the shell company.”

After Wang Zhou of Wuxi was deceived 2.88 million, he closely followed the fraud platform and implemented “lock card” retaliation. He found that among the major bank cards of China, agriculture, industry, construction, and investment, the majority of the bank cards were opened in Guangdong, and most of the account openings were in Pingyang County, Zhejiang.

Cui Xue, a victim of Huanggang, discovered that several of her funds had flowed between third-party bank cards, small banks, and Alipay, but I still don’t know where to go. These clues have not been able to play a role in investigation so far.

As one ex-spinach farmer said

“Today, I have been back home for more than half a year. I have put a booth in my hometown. I can earn more than 300 a day. I am willing to face a lot of hardships. At the very least, I earned clean money and it is not illegal.

In China, I saw Cambodia’s comprehensive rectification of illegal online gambling. A batch of spinach farmers were arrested and repatriated, and a large number of spinach practitioners were evacuated. I want to say that it is good to return to China .

In the end, I would like to persuade those who want to go abroad to “earn easy money ” At the same time, I hope that those compatriots who are still lucky and still not “on the shore ” can realize their errors and find a proper job.”

Part One is available to read HERE