Chinese Hangzhou Scam Syndicate Targets Elementary School Game Players, Laundering Proceeds Through Cryptocurrency

BlockBeats News, November 2nd. The People's Procuratorate of Fuyang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, charged that during the 2025 Spring Festival, Mr. Yang, with nothing to do, came up with a crooked idea. Through searching on Douyin, he found that impersonating a police officer to scam children was a "relatively simple" method. Soon, Mr. Yang formed his own "team": Mr. Yang, who knew how to exchange virtual currency, Mr. Chen, who was articulate, and Mr. Fu, who was in charge of logistics support.

They developed a professional modus operandi—first, they searched for "Egg Party" game videos on Douyin, specifically selecting users who appeared to be elementary school students to follow; once the other party followed back, they would contact them via private message, claiming to have "important information" to share; during video calls, they would present a forged police officer's ID, threaten the child that their game account was involved in criminal activities, and finally instruct the child to take their parent's phone and transfer funds to a designated account.

To evade investigation, the stolen funds would also be converted into virtual currency through a professional money laundering group before eventually being exchanged for cash and distributed.