A man who claimed to be proficient in Qimen Dun Jia (the Art of Becoming Invisible), horoscope and other "magic", alone or with the help of another man, had defrauded 19 victims of a total of more than 6 million yuan. A few days ago, Shanghai Huangpu District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against two defendants, one surnamed Yin and another surnamed Chen respectively, who used feudal superstition to commit fraud.
A girl named Xiaomin, firmly believed in astrology. During the university days, she met Mr. Chen who claimed to have the ability of fortune-telling. Xiaomin visited Chen many times and asked him to foretell her future, paying 300 yuan to Chen each time. In April 2020, Xiaomin told Chen that she had just broken up with her boyfriend and wanted to find the “other half” who could accompany her for life as soon as possible. At this point, Chen learned that an "immortal friend" surnamed Yin was selling a kind of “marriage ointment” which claimed to be able to attract the opposite sex. So he planned to recommend the ointment to Xiaomin for money. Chen contacted Mr. Yin immediately. Yin asked Chen to introduce Xiaomin to him, and promised he would play the “tricks” in person, and Chen would share a certain percentage of the “profit” later on.
In June 2020, three people set up a WeChat group, Yin was responsible for conducting verbal deception on spot, while Chen was backing him up from the sideline. "At that time, it happened that I was having problems in my career and marriage, so I wanted to change my fate through fortune-telling." According to Xiaomin's recollections, Yin pointed out that Xiaomin's Eight Characters were not good and could only be solved by performing religious rituals, otherwise she would end up in prison. It would take 58,000 yuan to perform the whole set of rituals, which could ensure that Xiaomin would marry into a wealthy family before the end of the year and have a prosperous future. In order to make Xiaomin rise to the bait, Yin also sent several screenshots of other customers’ WeChat feedback on effects of the rituals and the records of their remittance. Upon seeing that Xiaomin was somewhat moved, Yin kept urging her to transfer money.
"What they said was so mysterious and the terminology was very professional. At that time, I was eager to get married, so I didn’t raise any questions." Finally, Xiaomin transferred the money to them in three remittances. Half a month later, repeatedly urged by Xiaomin, Yin finally sent out the "ritual implement (instruments)", boasting that it could make women look young, beautiful and attractive. Xiaomin was overjoyed.
After that, Xiaomin reported everything in details about her work and emotional life to Yin and Chen. And consequently, Yin and Chen seized all kinds of opportunities to commit frauds. They fabricated a variety of excuses such as “changing fate, seeking wealth, or arranging marriage etc.”, asking Xiaomin to pay for religious rituals and “instruments”. Xiaomin was cheated to transfer money more than 70 times, totaling more than 1 million yuan. In fact, many "instruments" Xiaomin had never received. In the meantime, Xiaomin began to harbor doubts about Yin’s "magic", but Yin threatened her that if she did not trust him, there would be gods and demons coming at her, and various disasters would fall upon her. Xiaomin was very much afraid of being injured, sick or suffering retributions, so she chose to continue the game.
In November 2021, both Yin and Chen were arrested by the public security organs. After investigation, the so-called "magic" of Yin and Chen was nothing but deceitful tricks to fool people around, while the "religious implement (instruments)" was just a prop to mislead customers. From May 2019 to November 2021, Yin used similar methods to defraud several victims nationwide, resulting in a total loss of more than 6 million yuan to the victims. During the process, Chen introduced some customers or assisted Yin from sideline when Yin committed defrauds, resulting in a loss of more than 1 million yuan to the victims.
(Source：The Procuratorate Daily)
