Stealing virtual goods is hard to convict

Recently there are gangs, first through the phone to steal the resident QQ number for Q coins, and then through the network to sell those stolen Q coins. A few days ago, the criminal gang was arrested by the police in Jinan. The main criminal suspect Wu, Cai and other 4 people were captured. According to the police, this is the first time in Shandong province to uncover the theft of virtual goods of criminal gangs, but also the first to be suspected of theft to transfer the procuratorial organs of the theft of virtual property cases, which aroused our deep thinking.

The crime: Stolen dozen resident phone Recharge Q coins

March 29 this year, in Shandong province Jinan North Tan community, two of men in Hubei accent caused the patrol in Jinan City Public Security Bureau Lixia Branch Police suspicion: from 1 o'clock in the afternoon to 5, the two people frequent access to each unit building, and sometimes into a door building, sometimes separate into a door, but always empty-handed , the trace is very suspicious. The police stepped forward to clear the identity of the two men who were standing on the phone at a fixed-line box.

Faced with civilian police interrogation, the two are not alarmed, claiming that they have a communications company's "work card", the cell is the fixed telephone to detect. And the police to the communications company implementation, the communications company said that day did not arrange staff to the North Tan district to maintain telephone lines. At the same time, the police through the visit to understand that there are residents home fixed telephone rang in the afternoon, and some residents are ready to call, hear the handset is filled with Q-coins prompt voice.

Further interrogation by the civilian police, two people admit to be a fake communications company inspectors, the real "work" is through the unit building fixed-line telephone box to connect the resident landline "extension", and then steal dozen residents home appliances words for its QQ number recharge. Two people confessed, technology and equipment are available online, their work is for those sent over the QQ number recharge, each for a QQ number recharge successfully 60 yuan, the line will be 20 yuan pay to their bank card, so, from the beginning of March this year they began to "fight" all over the country, until the crime in Jinan arrested. Although each landline can only recharge two times per month, the maximum of 30 yuan, but two people have hundreds of QQ number recharge, theft amount of more than 3,000 yuan. According to two people confessed, civilian police, respectively, in the April 17 in Jiangsu Taixing will its online CAI captured, and on May 13 in Dalian, Liaoning will CAI a line Wu captured.

After investigation, from March 3, 2010 to March 29, the criminal gang repeatedly steal dozen residents home fixed phone charge q coins, the location of the crime involved in a number of open Jinan, involved in the value of more than 180,000 yuan.

Puzzle: Stealing virtual property is hard to convict

It is understood that through the misappropriation of residential telephone lines, the theft of sound news Taiwan "pot phone porridge" case in the previous years is not uncommon, but through the theft of phone recharge Q coins, and then online to sell Q-coins network crime, very rare.

Jinan Municipal Public Security Bureau team captain Sun Lian said: "For such virtual property theft case, forensics work is very difficult, must invest a lot of energy and financial resources, and because of the law on the virtual property of the criminal acts have no specific provisions, solve a problem." ”

He believes that the difficulty lies in the theft of the object and the amount of sentencing is difficult to determine, from the case to analyze, the theft of three objects: first, the telecommunications tariff, the second is Q-coins, the third is Tencent and telecommunications companies to provide services. The amount of money involved is two: one is the total amount of money involved, the second is the actual profit of the suspect, the former for the theft of the total amount of telecommunications charges, the latter for the sale of the profit of the Q-currency account, the difference is huge.

According to previous jurisprudence, such cases are often convicted and punished for damaging computer information systems. Regardless of the amount of money involved, according to the relevant provisions of our criminal law, damage to computer information systems, the consequences of serious, 5 years imprisonment or criminal detention.

"Theft is not the same, the criminal Law stipulates that the theft of a particularly large section of 10 years imprisonment or life imprisonment." "After discussion, we ruled out the crime of destroying computer information systems," Sun Lian said. Because in this case, the criminal suspect did not sabotage the computer system to commit the crime. We also report the case to the provincial Bureau of Criminal Investigation Department for instructions. ”

"The suspect steals the telephone line and then steals the phone, for the uninformed residents, the final fee for this part of the bill." Therefore, we think that the object of the theft should be clear, that is, the telephone charges of residents, but also to the residents caused real losses. "Zhao, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of Shandong Province, said," As for their online to sell Q-coins for profit, it should be the behavior of the fence. ”

Therefore, the Jinan police determined to be suspected of theft of the crime of transfer to the procuratorial organs to prosecute, the amount of money involved in the theft of telecommunications charges 180,000 yuan.

Warning: Telecoms and Tencent cannot escape responsibility

The lack of defensive measures by telecoms companies and Tencent is the root cause of the high risk of such thefts, according to police.

"We found in the investigation, Jinan is now a lot of the community itself is open, coupled with many telecommunications junction boxes are exposed, the suspect does not need to borrow other means, can be very easy to succeed, at the same time, two companies in the background software set up also have loopholes, even the minimum recharge password are not, That means anyone can recharge directly by calling. "Therefore, we are prepared to issue rectification proposals to two companies," said Wang Hongtao, vice captain of the Jinan Criminal Police detachment. ”

The reporter understands that, the telecommunication company provides the channel, the Tencent company provides the backstage, two passes through the Q coin This fictitious property bundle operation, the common profit, but this cooperation way is precisely the outlaws use.

"There is no effective prevention and control measures, the fight can not be completed." "In such a crime," said Wang Hongtao, residents and public security departments can not prevent and control, effective control or rely on telecommunications companies and Tencent, the former to strengthen line management and junction box protection, the latter to upgrade through the software, upgrade technology control measures, and effectively identify the abnormal users, will those outlaws shut out. ”