25 people arrested, 37 beauty and hair salons in Shanghai attract customers and gather information for a fortune telling fraud gang, lady | master | Shanghai
The Shanghai police recently cracked a fortune telling fraud case. Surprisingly, the fraud gang used 37 beauty and hair salons in the city as channels to attract customers. In their daily services, they carefully collected personal privacy information from customers and provided it to so-called "feng shui masters" with "one person, one file". Through precise "fortune telling", they accumulated tens of millions of yuan in fraud. At present, the police have captured 25 suspect.
In early June this year, Ms. Hu, a citizen, accompanied by her daughter, reported to the Xinsong Police Station in Minhang District that she had been scammed 35800 yuan by the "Feng Shui Master". Ms. Hu said that she has a good friend, Miss Yang, who is the manager of a beauty salon. During the consumption process, Miss Yang often tells her stories about many celebrities in the world who attach great importance to fortune telling and feng shui. She also said that she knows a prestigious "feng shui master" and with the help of the master, she has "succeeded" a lot. Ms. Hu had the idea of "seeing something" from this.
Miss Yang, who was enthusiastic, invited this Feng Shui master surnamed Sun to meet in the tea room at the end of May this year. After inquiring about Ms. Hu and her family's ID, phone number, birthday, and other information, the master described the situation of Ms. Hu's family and gave her daughter an excellent score in her studies and work. The master also pointed out Ms. Hu's inability to manage finances and listed three examples of her financial failures.
Subsequently, the "master" spoke astonishingly: he predicted that Ms. Hu would encounter a serious illness in 2025. Under the influence of fear and persuasion from Miss Yang, Ms. Hu ultimately agreed with the "master" on a "transportation change" plan worth 45800 yuan. Due to insufficient balance, Ms. Hu transferred 35800 yuan to the master on site. The master repeatedly stated that full payment must be made in order to cast a spell to resolve the situation.
After returning home, Ms. Hu, who was worried, told her daughter about the possibility of encountering serious illness in the future and spending money to arrange transportation. Upon hearing this, the daughter knew that her mother had been deceived and reported the incident to the police.
The Minhang police investigation found that many people have been deceived by "masters", and they all have a "friend" of a beauty salon. Ms. He, the victim, told the police that she had known Manager Qian of a beauty and hair salon for 6 years. Through Manager Qian's introduction, Ms. He, who did not believe in fortune telling, met Master Sun. The master is equally familiar with Ms. He's past experiences, even accurately calculating the gynecological diseases she has suffered from. Surprised, she paid 400000 yuan to request the "master" to change the shipment. Afterwards, she paid a total of 4.538 million yuan to the "master" for various reasons such as improving the health of her family and improving the operation of the tea factory, which was the highest loss among all the victims.
Regarding the association between beauty salons and "masters", the police conducted an investigation and evidence collection throughout Shanghai, and found that a total of 37 beauty salons recommended customers to "feng shui masters". The victims of the scam have a long-standing service relationship with the beauty and hair salon, and have formed friendships with the store manager or staff. "During the long-term service, these people gradually learned about the identity, health and private family information of the victims, as well as their consumption ability and even their psychological state." The case handling authority said that it is with the support of these personal information that suspect can "accurately tell fortunes".
From late June to early August this year, Shanghai police arrested 5 members of core fraud gangs and 20 members of drainage gangs, and seized language materials used for fraud training at the office of so-called "feng shui masters".
According to the police, Mr. Cheng, the suspect, together with Mr. Sun and other four people, set up the so-called "Life Theory Consultation" studio, where Mr. Cheng was responsible for the overall operation, fund collection and commission distribution; Sun, as a "feng shui master", serves as a client for fortune telling and transportation, with a minimum cost of 10000 yuan and no upper limit; Zhang is responsible for organizing training for drainage personnel, teaching drainage language skills, obtaining victim information provided by drainage personnel, and arranging for "masters" to receive victims. Qian and Qin are developing attraction personnel in various beauty and hair salons, using a high 50% discount as bait to attract relevant store managers and employees to join. Some drainage personnel not only provide personal information of the victims, but also provide targeted fraud schemes for the "masters".
At present, 4 suspect including Mr. Cheng have been arrested by Minhang Procuratorate according to law due to suspected fraud, and 21 suspect including Mr. Yang have been taken criminal coercive measures by Minhang police according to law due to suspected fraud. After investigation and visits, the police have found 35 victims and returned some of the money that was defrauded.
