The police in Hubei, China, have cracked a fraud case involving the use of USD, which involved domestic "riders" assisting fraudsters in transferring funds.

On May 26, according to the Hubei Internet Police, in January this year, Xiaoli (pseudonym), a resident of Shengli Town, met "Wang", who claimed to be an active soldier, on a dating platform. This talkative "soldier brother" used the strict discipline of the army as an excuse to lead Xiaoli to encrypted chat software. Between the daily greetings, "Wang" gradually threw out the bait - claiming to master the internal investment channels of a financial company, and intimately offered to operate on his behalf. Seeing the screenshot of the account sent by "Wang", the number rolled from 100,000 to 300,000, Xiaoli was finally moved. As everyone knows, this seemingly professional investment platform is actually a virtual program controlled by fraudsters, and the so-called income is just a digital game modified at will in the background. When Xiaoli began to "top up" the platform, a more secretive criminal chain began to operate. The fraud syndicate sent a number of "riders" to collect cash offline. These cashiers, dressed in casual clothes, appeared like ghosts at the agreed place. After counting the banknotes, they turn around and convert the cash into virtual currency, completing the crucial step of "laundering" the stolen money. On March 28, when the last 30,000 yuan in cash was withdrawn, the "officer's boyfriend" suddenly lost contact. Xiaoli, who woke up, hurriedly called the police, and at this time she had transferred hundreds of thousands of yuan of hard-earned money. After receiving the police, the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Luotian County Public Security Bureau quickly set up a special case team to carry out "two-line tracking". Through the analysis of capital flow and technical investigation, the police found that this criminal gang showed the typical characteristics of "overseas command and domestic implementation". The so-called "officer's boyfriend" is actually a foreign fraudster, and the "riders" who are active in China are money laundering gangs that help fraudsters transfer funds. According to the suspect's confession, the gang received instructions through overseas chat software, and traded offline with the victim after each order. After receiving the cash, they buy USDT (Tether) at a below-market price and transfer it to the "upstream" wallet, using the anonymity of the virtual currency to evade regulation. In order to avoid detection, they often wear masks and hats when withdrawing money, and even change the means of transportation frequently. "These 'riders' earn 3%-5% commission each time, and their greed makes them accomplices in crime." The police handling the case revealed that at present, the police have recovered 130,000 yuan of the victim's loss, frozen 300,000 yuan of suspicious funds, and 4 criminal suspects have been taken criminal coercive measures in accordance with the law, and the case is being further investigated. According to the police, Tether (referred to as "U-Coin"), like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is an encrypted virtual currency, and has become the most "favored" money laundering medium for fraudsters because of its anonymity and convenience of transactions.