Clear shopping cart
It is best to choose a formal trading platform
Otherwise you may not be able to buy things
I'll lose a lot of money
When Ms. Li bought clothes on Xiaohongshu, she was led by scammers to other platforms for private transactions because she believed the "low-price discount" information. She encountered multiple serial frauds and lost more than 5,000 yuan in total.
Case review
Ms. Li found a piece of clothing with a very low price on Xiaohongshu. She contacted the merchant through private messages and was later asked to add QQ to facilitate communication. After adding it, the merchant sent a WeChat payment code through QQ and asked Ms. Li to pay 50 yuan for the clothes.
After payment, the merchant suddenly claimed that Ms. Li's account had been frozen on the grounds that "the low price of clothes triggered platform risk control" and she needed to pay a 360 yuan unfreezing fee, and promised to return all the money after unfreezing. Ms. Li thought it was true and paid 360 yuan by scanning another WeChat payment code provided by the merchant.
The unfreezing was not successful, and the merchant further requested to pay 1,640 yuan to complete the unfreezing process on the grounds that "the account was still frozen due to operational errors." Ms. Li scanned the QR code to pay again, but due to insufficient account balance, only the transfer of 1,100 yuan was completed. At this time, the merchant proposed to use her mother's account to complete the transfer, and Ms. Li paid 1,640 yuan through her mother's mobile phone.
After the payment was completed, the other party once again asked Ms. Li to pay 3,360 yuan to unlock the refund process on the grounds that "the refund amount was too large." Ms. Li finally paid 2,000 yuan, noticed something unusual, and chose to call the police.
[Analysis of fraud techniques]
01
Low price bait to gradually gain trust
Scammers use social media to attract victims' attention with goods that are far below the market price as bait. Subsequently, on the grounds of "convenient communication", the victim is directed to third-party chat platforms such as QQ or WeChat to deviate from the formal transaction process and reduce the victim's vigilance.
02
Setting up obstacles and repeatedly asking for money
Fraudsters take advantage of victims' unfamiliarity and panic about technical issues such as "account freezing" and "risk control unlocking" to forge complex processes, create a sense of urgency, and require victims to pay "unfreezing fees" and "unlocking fees" in multiple payments. Each payment is accompanied by false promises of refunds, luring victims into continuing transfers.
03
Pressuring and fabricating evidence to solidify the scam
When the victim is suspicious, the fraudsters exert psychological pressure through reasons such as "operational errors" and "refund timeout" to further strengthen the scam. Use forged payment codes and order numbers to create credibility and lure victims into a serial fraud trap step by step.
[Police Tips]
1. Online shopping will never deviate from the formal platform: any request to add WeChat or QQ transactions privately will most likely be a scam!
2. Be wary of the lie that “paying more money will solve the problem”: formal transactions do not require additional fees, and payment by red envelopes, recharge cards, etc. will not be used!
3. Stop losses in time and call the police immediately: save chat records, payment vouchers and other evidence, and quickly dial 110 for help!
Released by: Kunming Anti-Fraud Center
