PANews reported on May 14th that according to Red Network, recently, the police in Xiangtan, Hunan successfully dismantled a black and gray industry gang specializing in stealing, cultivating, and selling accounts, arresting 24 suspects and seizing over 3,000 mobile phones used in the crimes. The gang used "complete tasks and receive red packets" as bait, specifically targeting minors to steal verified WeChat accounts, which were then sold to overseas buyers through virtual currency transactions. Police investigation revealed that the gang used IoT cards to batch-change WeChat account bindings and circumvented WeChat's security mechanisms by forging risk warnings and sending verification codes at high frequencies. After "cultivating" the stolen WeChat accounts for 7 days, they were sold at prices ranging from 650 to 950 yuan based on registration duration, with the gang leader Feng earning over 1.2 million yuan illegally. The case has been transferred to the procuratorate for review. Police explained that these stolen accounts are commonly used in telecommunications fraud, with criminals continuously cycling through black and gray industry criminal methods to support other criminal activities. The police warn against renting or selling personal social media accounts to avoid becoming an accomplice to such criminal activities.
