The provincial capital of Guangxi Province.
In a rental house, Chen Manni, with disheveled hair and pale face, stared at the screen of her mobile phone. The information on it that she needed to pay a deposit of more than 100,000 yuan made her heart sink.
At this moment, doubt flashed through her mind again, but she quickly cleared it from her mind.
Things have developed to this point, and she has no choice but to go all the way, otherwise she cannot bear the consequences.
Chen Manni is 24 years old this year. She has an ordinary appearance and a quiet personality. After graduating from university, she found a clerical job in the provincial capital. Although the salary is not high, the work is relatively leisurely and there is little pressure, which is quite suitable for her.
Chen Manni is a true homebody. In her spare time, she likes to stay in her rental house, browse various social platforms, share her daily life, and interact with netizens. She feels that her monotonous life has become colorful.
One day, Chen Manni met a man named "Gao Junxiong" on a dating website. The first time she saw his homepage, she felt inexplicably attracted to him.
Gao Junxiong is tall, handsome, and has an extraordinary appearance. His appearance is the "ideal type" of many girls. His homepage shows a lot of personal updates such as fitness, self-driving tours, and gatherings with friends. He also often shares videos of himself taking care of pets at home, spending time with his family, and making delicious food. He gives people the impression of being a sunny, cheerful, warm and positive "high-quality" man.
Perhaps because he saw that Chen Manni often followed him, Gao Junxiong took the initiative to add her as a friend and greeted her online.
After the two chatted on the platform for a while, Gao Junxiong politely suggested that he and Chen Manni add each other on WeChat.
Chen Manni naturally wanted this very much.
Gao Junxiong claimed that he was 30 years old, engaged in financial intermediary services, and had a car and a house with a good income. Knowing that Chen Manni lived alone, he was considerate and asked about her well-being every day, and his just-right caring reminders and thoughtful exhortations made Chen Manni feel unprecedented warmth.
After more than a month of hotline contact, the relationship between Chen Manni and Gao Junxiong has gradually warmed up.
However, when Gao Junxiong proposed to meet in person, Chen Manni was full of concerns. She felt that there was a big gap between her and Gao Junxiong in terms of both appearance and career. She was afraid that after removing the beauty filter, her real self would disappoint Gao Junxiong.
Gao Junxiong seemed to see through her thoughts, and in turn gently comforted her, saying that he admired girls like Chen Manni who were kind, simple, quiet and introverted. It didn't matter that she was not financially independent now. He was a professional financial planner and could guide Chen Manni to do the "online financial management" project that made the fastest money, and use professional technology to avoid risks and ensure profits.
Under Gao Junxiong's strong recommendation, Chen Manni scanned the code to download an online investment APP, and then he taught her how to top up, watch the market, and place orders. Under Gao Junxiong's guidance, Chen Manni made profits one after another, and the 520 yuan principal she first topped up to test the waters quickly doubled. Gao Junxiong immediately let her withdraw the money and told her that the platform 100% guaranteed that the funds would be absolutely safe.
Moreover, Gao Junxiong made promises to her and sent her a voice message telling her that once she earned enough money for the down payment on a house, they would go to her hometown and buy a house together, and that the house would be their joint property from then on.
A considerate lover, a fortune, and a bright future. Chen Manni was completely overwhelmed by this sudden happiness. At the instruction of Gao Junxiong, she borrowed tens of thousands of yuan from her parents and friends with little savings and recharged the platform, from the initial 520 yuan to 1,314 yuan and 5,200 yuan.
Gao Junxiong lived up to his promise and used his professional skills to help her make a lot of money. These digital investments, which were full of romantic implications, also made Chen Manni feel the sweetness of "love".
After a few days, Chen Manni wanted to withdraw her capital and let the profits roll in. However, after clicking "Withdraw", the system notified her that the bank card number was incorrect. To avoid incorrect payment, she had to pay a deposit of the same amount to correct the card number before "returning the full amount".
Seeing that Chen Manni was so anxious that she was about to cry, Gao Junxiong said that all his money had been used for investment and he had no cash on hand, but he could help Chen Manni borrow money quickly for emergency.
So, under the recommendation and guidance of Gao Junxiong, Chen Manni, who had never been exposed to online loans, downloaded more than 10 online loan apps involuntarily. As the high-interest loans she applied for arrived, she was soon induced by Gao Junxiong to invest in the so-called online investment platform.
Today, Chen Manni has invested more than 600,000 yuan. With repeated investments, she can no longer turn back. She is afraid that once she stops investing, all her previous investments will be lost, and she cannot bear this blow.
However, as the money could not be withdrawn and the repayment date of the online loan was getting closer, Chen Manni became more and more anxious.
All the online loans that could be taken out had been taken out, and she had borrowed from her parents, relatives and friends. After much thought, Chen Manni decided to ask a distant cousin to borrow some more.
I heard from my mother that this distant cousin of hers worked in a matchmaking agency in the provincial capital and had very good salary and benefits. When Chen Manni asked to borrow 10,000 yuan for the first time, this distant cousin lent it to her without hesitation. Apparently what her mother said was right, this distant cousin of hers was indeed doing well.
So Chen Manni called her distant cousin again.
As soon as the call was connected, Chen Manni asked hesitantly, "Cousin, I've run into some problems here, and I want to borrow some money from you. Do you have the money handy?"
The distant cousin couldn't help but ask, "Cousin, what happened to you? How much money do you need to borrow?"
Chen Manni evaded the point and said, "I just encountered some difficulties. I want to borrow 50,000 yuan. Is it possible? I will return it to you, cousin, when I recover."
The distant cousin said, "Cousin, to be honest, I can indeed afford the 50,000 yuan, but I just lent you 10,000 yuan last month. Now you're asking me to borrow another 50,000 yuan. What happened to you? Did you participate in online gambling?"
Chen Manni quickly denied it: "No, how could I participate in gambling!"
The distant cousin asked, "Then tell me why you want to borrow 50,000 yuan?"
Chen Manni knew that if she didn't explain clearly, her distant cousin would not lend her the 50,000 yuan, so she gritted her teeth and told her cousin what happened. At the end, she said, "I just want to get enough money for the deposit, and then take out all the money I invested."
The distant cousin immediately said with great sorrow: "My silly cousin, you have encountered a 'pig-killing scam'. No matter how much money you put in, it will all be in vain. Call the police immediately!"
Chen Manni's face changed drastically when she heard this, and she said unwillingly, "No, he won't lie to me."
She said this, but her heart sank to the bottom. In fact, she had already realized this problem after she invested all the money from online loans and was trapped in it.
But again, she has invested too much and there is no turning back.
I can only turn a deaf ear to the truth and continue to believe the lies made up by that man.
The distant cousin said, "You didn't say anything at the beginning, but now it's obvious. Can't you see it? Don't be silly. This is a bottomless pit. No matter how much you invest, it will be in vain. The best way now is to stop the loss and call the police to see if the police can catch those cunning scammers.
Oh, by the way, my boss is very powerful, I will ask him if there is any way for you, cousin, please wait for me for a few minutes, don't act rashly, and don't tell the other party about this. If you contact them, just say you are raising money. In short, you must stabilize the other party first, understand?"
Chen Manni replied with a pale face: "Okay."
…
Happy Dating Agency.
A beautiful woman in her thirties walked quickly towards the boss' office. Her name was Li Lijun, and she was Chen Manni's distant cousin. She used to be a matchmaker in other matchmaking agencies and was one of the second batch of matchmakers to join the Happy Matchmaking Agency.
When she arrived at the boss's office, Li Lijun knocked on the door and waited until the boss called out for her to come in before she pushed the door open and walked in.
Seeing Li Lijun coming in, Jiang Feng smiled and asked, "Li Hongniang, what's the matter?"
Li Lijun said solemnly, "Boss, a distant cousin of mine has been scammed by a 'pig-killing' scam. Now my silly cousin has been scammed out of more than 600,000 yuan and owes a large amount of online loans. The 'pig-killing' scam is coming to an end. If the scammers can't squeeze out any money, they will choose to retreat at any time. I wonder if you have any way to catch these hateful scammers?"
Jiang Feng knew from her tone that the situation was urgent, so he said without further ado, "Where is your cousin now? Ask her to call the scammer in front of me, and I'll see if I can catch him."
Li Lijun's eyes lit up and she said, "My cousin is in the provincial capital. I'll call her and ask her to come over right away."
Jiang Feng nodded and said, "Well, let her come over right away. I'll also notify the police. When I have news, I'll have them arrest the person right away."
Li Lijun thanked her with a grateful look on her face, then she called her cousin and said, "Cousin, my boss is willing to help. With my boss's methods, those scammers can't escape. Take a taxi to our matchmaking agency right now, and I'll send you the location."
Although Chen Manni didn't know who her cousin's boss was, she knew that her cousin would not harm her. Besides, she was now at a loss, so she had no choice but to trust her cousin.
So, after hanging up the phone, Chen Manni went out and took a taxi straight to the Happy Marriage Agency.
…
A simple tent was built in a deep forest in the mountains of M City, Guangxi Province.
The tent was set up under a big tree. Inside there was a gas stove, a pot, two small tables, several plastic stools, a few sets of bowls and chopsticks, and a few plates.
On the table, there were condiments such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and underneath were a bag of rice and several boxes of instant noodles.
At the innermost part of the tent are several sleeping bags.
This is a fraud den where four fraudsters, three men and one woman, live.
Nowadays, the country is cracking down on telecommunications fraud. Many fraudsters have gone abroad to carry out fraud. However, those who have not gone abroad also have their own ways of hiding.
Some fraudsters choose to hide in the city. They rent office spaces such as office buildings and disguise themselves as companies to cover up their tracks. However, these fraud dens generally do not have company or unit signs.
Most of them are young people between 20 and 30 years old. They usually have computers, mobile phones and scripts at their workstations. They use WeChat, QQ and other chat software on their computers to chat with multiple people at the same time. The contact nicknames on the chat software are mostly named after private characteristics such as the person's name, city, marital status, etc.
Some scammers choose to hide in the desolate mountains and wilderness where the terrain is complex and the borders of provinces and cities are located. The scam den in front of us is just one of many.
At this time, the four scammers were discussing their pig-killing progress.
The pig-killing plate is generally divided into several steps:
The first step is to find a pig.
Scammers package themselves first and then get to know their targets through various dating apps or websites.
The second step is raising pigs.
The daily concern and caring, pretending to be vulnerable and showing strength... are all tricks to gain the target's trust.
Step three: feed the pigs.
After gaining the target's trust, they will first encourage the target to buy fake stocks and other financial products they have developed themselves, allowing the target to make a small profit and then fall into the trap they have set.
Step 4: Kill the pig.
At this point, the target has already placed great trust in the scammers, and is then exploited over and over again until every drop of the target's blood is squeezed dry.
Step 5: Abandon the pig.
After completely draining the target, the scammers can easily block the target and enjoy the fruits of victory.
"Brother Xiong, you are really awesome. You can squeeze more than 600,000 yuan out of a random pig. But there shouldn't be much oil left from this pig, right? Are you ready to abandon the pig?" asked a young man with a mustache.
The young man who had transformed into a handsome man smiled complacently and said, "It's almost time to abandon the pig. She told me before that she could borrow some money from her cousin. This should be the last sum of money she can raise.
To be honest, I am a little reluctant to kill this stupid pig. It was so easy to kill. It took almost no effort to squeeze out more than 600,000 yuan. It was smoother than I could have imagined. "
Another young man replied with envy, "Yes, it's rare to come across such a stupid pig. The pig I raised before was smarter. It was fine when I was raising it, but when I started to kill it, it became alert all of a sudden. I only squeezed out tens of thousands of dollars before she saw through me."
The only female said with a smile, "If this is a good thing, we all have gained something, and it's worth it that we have been hiding in this hellhole for a month or two. After we finish this deal, we have to go out and enjoy ourselves."
"I really need to enjoy myself. I almost vomit from eating instant noodles and porridge every day."
"There's nothing we can do. In this deep forest, it's already pretty good to have instant noodles and porridge."
"Next time you come, be sure to bring more bacon. It's perfectly fine to keep it for a month or two, and it can help improve our meals."
“…”
As they were talking, Gao Junxiong's phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and immediately smiled, "It seems that this should be my final battle. Once I squeeze out the last drop of blood, I can call it a day."