After completion, quietly delete the SMS record. Details of the case of "14 million elderly phones controlled by trojans": Control the phone and reply with "Y" to activate the service

On September 22, Red Star News reporter learned from the police in Panzhihua, Sichuan that recently, the Panzhihua public security cracked a case of illegal control of the computer information system. The police went to Guangdong, Beijing, Hainan, Hunan and other places, successfully destroyed four criminal gangs and captured 29 suspect. According to the police handling the case, the gang illegally controlled up to 14 million mobile phones for the elderly. The suspect colluded with the elderly mobile phone solution providers and manufacturers to implant trojan programs in the production of elderly mobile phones. Without the knowledge of mobile phone users, the background ordered SP value-added services and shared profits with SP vendors.

An inexplicably expensive elderly machine

Increase by 1 to 10 yuan per month

Last April, Mr. Zhang from Panzhihua, Sichuan bought his father an elderly phone. However, when he paid his father's phone bill every month, he always found that the cost would inexplicably increase, "I initially thought it was caused by my father's mistake."

However, Mr. Zhang discovered in the following months that his father's monthly phone bills were increasing, and the elderly person stated that he had not opened value-added services. Later, Mr. Zhang went to the telephone and communication service hall to inquire and found that his father's phone had opened multiple value-added charging services such as "Safe Weather", "Power on Reminder", and "Mobile Report".

"I searched through my dad's phone, but didn't see any reminder to open value-added services. My dad didn't order it himself, so I suspected that his phone was infected with a virus." So, Mr. Zhang took his phone to the Panzhihua Public Security Bureau to report the case.

After receiving the alarm, the police further investigated and found that Mr. Zhang's father's experience was not an exception. According to the investigating police, it was discovered during the investigation that multiple elderly people in the jurisdiction used the same model of elderly phones and inexplicably automatically ordered value-added services. "The relevant value-added service fees were deducted every month, ranging from 1 yuan to 10 yuan, and it is suspected that the phones were remotely manipulated."

Collaborating with mobile phone solution providers and manufacturers

The gang controls 14 million mobile phones

The investigating police officer explained that through investigation, many elderly people are not familiar with operating their phones and often think that they accidentally touched them, so they do not pay much attention, resulting in long-term losses. The police further investigated and found that these mobile network data were all linked to servers with the same domain name. After remote investigation, it was determined that the server was the Trojan server used by criminals to commit criminal acts.

Through multiple investigations and evidence collection, the police in charge of the case successfully locked down the suspect Kong who rented the server, and used Kong as a breakthrough to dig deeply along the line. A criminal gang illegally controlling the elderly aircraft gradually emerged.

"The suspect colluded with the elderly mobile phone solution providers and manufacturers to implant trojan programs in the production process of elderly mobile phones. Without the knowledge of mobile phone users, the background ordered SP value-added services and shared profits with SP companies." Through data tracking, the police found that 14 million mobile phones were controlled by the trojan server. The police introduced that the "operation specialist" of the gang used a mobile Trojan program to send a text message confirming the activation of value-added subscription services to mobile users, and controlled the mobile terminal to automatically reply with "Y" to activate. After a series of operations were completed, the SMS records sent and received were deleted, so that mobile users could not be aware of it.

Four criminal gangs illegally profit billions of yuan

The police have arrested 29 suspects

By using such covert criminal techniques, the four criminal gangs in this case illegally profited billions of yuan. According to the police, these gangs illegally control up to 14 million elderly mobile phones, with a particularly large number of controlled phones and extremely negative social impact.

↑ Elderly mobile phones involved in the case

In February 2023, the public security organs in Panzhihua carried out a centralized network collection of the case. The special police officers rushed to Guangdong, Beijing, Hainan, Hunan and other places to arrest a total of 29 suspects. 43 mobile phones, 22 computer hard drives, 5 laptops, and 2 cat pool servers were confiscated on site, and more than 60 million yuan in involved funds were frozen. At present, the case has been transferred to 12 people for prosecution, and 11 people are on bail awaiting trial. The case is still under investigation.

The police remind that the internet is not an illegal place, and netizens should strengthen their own security awareness. They should not check and click on messages from unknown sources, register unfamiliar websites without a mobile phone number, and do not scan QR codes from unknown sources. Once they discover illegal and criminal activities on the internet, they should report them to the public security organs in a timely manner, and work together to create a harmonious and clear online space.

Related cases

Elderly phone implanted with Trojan horse involved in 200 million cases

19 high-intelligence criminal gangs sentenced

In 2020, the police in Panzhihua, Sichuan also successfully cracked another case of illegal control of computer information systems. The criminal gang led by Chen has registered a specialized technology company in Shenzhen to produce mobile phones and sell elderly phones with Trojan function to the market for illegal control and gain illegal benefits. Once the phone is purchased for card insertion, it will actively send the phone number to the criminal gang and automatically connect with the technology company's backend server to achieve the goal of controlling the target phone.

The suspect in this case took the elderly function machine as the crime carrier, implanted trojan programs in the link of production of elderly function machines, controlled the function machine through overseas servers, and carried out criminal activities in a variety of ways, such as mass SMS, obtaining SMS verification codes, colluding with SP vendors to secretly deduct fees, etc. The case involves 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the country, involving millions of mobile phones and a total amount of over 200 million yuan.

In February 2021, 19 suspect involved in the case were prosecuted, including 2 with graduate degrees, 5 with undergraduate degrees and 5 with junior college degrees. This is a typical new type of Internet crime with high IQ. In April of the same year, the East District Court of Panzhihua City publicly announced the first instance verdict, and Chen and 19 other defendants were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 6 years to 10 months and fined.

In this case, two defendants with graduate degrees and multiple associate degrees or above were considered accomplices and did not gain much profit in the case. Among them, graduate students Tang and Yin, who were aware that others were engaged in illegal activities to control mobile phones, still assisted in the implementation of Trojan horse implantation. Tang was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, while Yin was sentenced to two years in prison with a three-year probation.