Chinese police have arrested 12 scammers impersonating as Huobi officials

• Chinese authorities have busted 12 suspects who are accused of posing as Huobi exchange officials. 
• The group was operating an over-the-counter (OTC) website. 
• Scammers persuaded victims to invest in the fake OTC platform, which was used for money laundering.

The Chinese police have arrested a group of alleged scammers impersonating as Huobi exchange officials. The group was operating a fake over-the-counter (OTC) website. According to a local report, the accused started to infiltrate WeChat crypto trading groups in November 2019 and were offering lucrative schemes to the traders. The fake schemes even offered the investors a chance to double their investments.

The fraudsters persuaded victims to invest in the fake OTC platform, which was used for money laundering. Later, the defrauded money was sent to overseas accounts. The scammers had posted about their “good news” foreign Bitcoin investment opportunity on WeChat.

According to the testimony an anonymous victim, he transferred RMB 100,000 to the account advertised on the fake platform. The investment initially began to record “considerable earnings,” almost doubling the capital. Similar to many other scams, the fraudsters persuaded this victim to continue investing. He eventually sent around RMB 3.1 million to different bank accounts. 

In February, the victim received a notice from the fake OTC platform informing that the project “had cracked up” and therefore lost the money. Law enforcement authorities said that after this sudden closure of the platform, the criminals diverted the money through various bank accounts. The authorities said that they had seized computers, mobile phones, bank cards and other items related to the case.