Chinese Scammer Cheats Livestream Views Using Thousands Of Phones, Extorts Millions in Yuan

A Chinese man used thousands of smartphones to inflate his live-stream viewer counts artificially. This traffic fraud scheme enabled him to amass 3 million yuan (about £332435.75) in under four months. Previously, he also offered services to live-streamers seeking to enhance their online presence.

Authorities in Zhejiang province, the heart of China’s live-streaming industry, have now imprisoned the man, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP). This marks a rare crackdown on such practices in the province. Officials fined Mr. Wang 50,000 yuan (about £5607.35) and sentenced him to 15 months in prison for “crime of illegal business operations.”

How Wang Inflated Live Stream Views

In late 2022, Wang discovered the profitability of “brushing,” a deceptive online tactic which involves manipulating real-time metrics like viewer counts, comments, and shares in live streams to lure genuine viewers and mislead consumers.

Brushing scams, however, are more commonly associated with e-commerce fraud. Here, sellers create fake orders to inflate product ratings and visibility on online platforms. This deceptive practice ultimately harms unsuspecting consumers who rely on these metrics to make informed purchasing decisions.

As part of his strategy, Wang bought 4,600 smartphones and controlled them using specialised cloud software.

Operating The Phones

Wang further equipped himself with virtual private networks (VPNs) and network hardware from a Changsha tech company. This setup allowed him to control a massive network of smartphones remotely and enabled him to manipulate viewer counts and interactions on targeted live streams with a few clicks.

“The cost of using one of the mobile phones is 6.65 yuan (less than £0.80) per day,” Wang said. Wang’s pricing structure was based on two factors: the duration each phone participated in a live stream and the total number of phones activated.

By March 2023, Wang had amassed roughly 3 million yuan (around £332385.95) by offering his services to live-streamers who desired to inflate their online presence. He claimed to have acquired the fake viewer accounts in bulk from external sources.

Wang’s scheme wasn’t foolproof. The fake accounts occasionally triggered platform security measures due to failing real-name authentication. Much to his relief, the re-registration process was straightforward.

“There are certain loopholes in the account management of the live-streaming platform,” the prosecutor in charge of the case told Ningbo Evening News, a newspaper in Ningbo, China. The prosecutor remained tight-lipped about the source of the smartphones, hinting only at the possibility of illicit activity within the mobile phone recycling market.

In addition to 17-year-old Wang, local prosecuting authorities said other suspects are under investigation for “breaking national regulations, knowingly spreading fake information online through publishing services for profit, and disrupting the market order.”

Traffic fraud has plagued China’s live-streaming platforms and e-commerce websites for years, sparking public outcry and demands for stricter regulations. The problem extends beyond China, as cybercriminals constantly evolve their tactics.

For example, a 2023 study revealed the use of advanced AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot in online scams. This highlights the global nature of online fraud, as evidenced by the staggering $10 billion (around £8 billion) lost by Americans to such scams last year.