Surprisingly "crazy": More than 3000 mobile phones automatically register for WeChat signals while driving | black and gray | Surprisingly

On four iron shelves, over 3000 mobile phones are on, automatically registering for WeChat accounts

This is the situation seen by the Zhoucun District Branch of the Zibo Public Security Bureau in Shandong Province during the process of cracking the "9.16" large-scale black and gray industry series cases.

After investigation, it was found that this illegal registration and trafficking of WeChat criminal gang had registered over 3 million WeChat accounts in bulk and sold them for activities such as telecommunications fraud and online gambling, earning illegal profits of over 10 million yuan.

Why can a mobile phone automatically register for a WeChat account and what software was used to change the phone? Where does the phone number used to register for WeChat come from? With two years of in-depth investigation by the police, a series of "mysteries" have gradually been solved.

Illegal registration for bulk buying and selling of WeChat accounts

On September 16, 2021, the Zhoucun police arrived at a criminal hideout hidden in a local residential area based on clues and cracked down on a criminal activity of illegally registering and selling WeChat. At the moment of opening the door, the scene in front of me surprised the investigator very much.

In the living room of the crime den, the iron shelves are filled with mobile phones. These phones are all running normally and do not require manual operation. They automatically pop up the registration WeChat interface, enter the phone number, and set the password process. From the computers currently in use on site, investigators extract hundreds of thousands of registration data.

The picture shows a mobile phone on the shelf that is automatically registering for a WeChat account.

After investigation, the operator of this electronic technology company is Gong Xiaoyu, born in 1988 in Huantai County. This company has neither a normal operating address nor registered employees, finance, etc. The two residential houses rented by Gong Xiaoyu are his company's office premises.

On September 16, 2021, the police split into two groups and arrested the leader of the criminal gang, Gong Xiaoyu, and other members. The police learned that the perpetrator continuously modified the basic information of their mobile phone through a device modification software, bypassing the registration security review system, and illegally obtained the registration information and SMS verification code content of WeChat, in order to achieve duplicate registration of WeChat accounts on the same mobile phone.

After investigation, it was found that Gong Xiaoyu's criminal gang has registered more than 3 million WeChat accounts, engaged in illegal transactions with overseas criminals, and settled through virtual currency. In November 2021, 15 suspect in Gong Xiaoyu's criminal gang were captured by the police.

Developing software for machine modification and trading with virtual currency

Gong Xiaoyu's criminal gang is just one link in the profit chain of this black and gray industry. In order to completely break down the chain of criminal interests, the police have strengthened their investigation at the source.

The picture shows police officers studying and judging the case

Investigators found that in order to achieve batch registration of WeChat accounts, the suspect must solve two key problems, one is to have the software to change the phone, and the other is to have a steady stream of mobile phone numbers to register WeChat accounts.

According to Gong Xiaoyu, in 2018, he met Ah Hao in the QQ group of Heihuichan. This person is very active in the group and often sells a large number of WeChat accounts. Gong Xiaoyu proactively contacted Ah Hao and obtained three software for machine modification.

The police quickly identified Ah Hao's true identity and arrested him in another province on December 4, 2021. According to Ah Hao's account, the change software he was selling on behalf of was recommended to him by a netizen named "Wuji". Ah Hao does not know the real name of "Wuji", but they have met in Guangzhou.

The police tracked down a person named A Ran and arrested suspect A Ran in a high-end community in Guangzhou on January 17, 2022.

After investigation, in 2019, Arun realized that the software for changing machines was profitable and formed a technology limited company, recruiting multiple highly educated computer software developers to develop the software for changing machines. Arun, along with Chen Lin and Ma Haitao, developed a software with a higher success rate for machine modification. To avoid being hit, they switched to using the virtual currency Bitcoin for trading settlement. After in-depth investigation, the police arrested all members of the criminal gang who developed software for machine modification.

The operator's insider provides vacant account resources

After capturing the criminal gang that developed the software for changing machines, the police shifted their focus of investigation to the source of mobile phone numbers. Gong Xiaoyu explained that the phone numbers he used to register for WeChat were all empty, provided by two netizens he met in the black and gray industry circle.

Among them, A Peng and A Chao have been residing in Fujian Province for a long time and jointly engage in illegal activities such as registering WeChat accounts. At the beginning of 2018, Ah Peng met a merchant named Angkor in the black and gray industry circle, and obtained sufficient vacant account resources. Ah Peng also provided mobile phone numbers to gangs across the country.

The police found that although these mobile phone numbers are empty, they can send and receive SMS verification codes. The operator staff told the police that both empty and real name numbers are sent and received by the provincial operator's SMS gateway server. The police speculate that there may be an insider in the provincial operator.

The police conducted further analysis on Angkor and determined his true identity. Through investigation of his social relationships, it was found that Angkor had a close relationship with two executives from a technology company in Anhui. One of the responsible persons is named Liu Yue. After investigation, he collaborated with the insider Tian Lin from a certain communication company to provide a number for Angkor. Tian Lin deceived the operator's internal audit by signing false number pool business contracts, setting up servers in the operator's computer room, illegally intruding into the operator's SMS gateway system, providing interfaces to downstream WeChat registrars, and then extracting empty number resources through the operator's number pool, using a large number of empty numbers to receive and send SMS verification codes. Through the false number pool business, Liu Yue obtained a large number of mobile phone numbers from a provincial operator. In addition, another person in charge of the technology company, Qi Tian, also played a role in bridging several provincial operators for Angkor.

Starting from May 2022, the Zhoucun police have been carrying out arrest operations against the operators' insiders. The police have recovered over 80 million phone number data from their computers, which means 80 million phone numbers have been used to register for WeChat.

The picture shows the phone seized by the police

Most of these people who provide benefits for illegal elements are middle-level managers holding important positions in provincial-level operators. Although they knew their behavior was illegal, they never considered it illegal.

With the arrival of the last operator's insider, a huge black ash production case that had been investigated by the Zibo police for nearly two years ended the investigation. A total of 10 criminal gangs were killed, 135 suspect were arrested, more than 200 million yuan of assets involved in the case were seized, and more than 5000 mobile phones were involved, completely cutting off a black ash production interest chain that provides services such as WeChat accounts to overseas criminal groups.