ChainCatcher news, according to the Taiyuan Daily, in recent years, some criminals have been using the banners of blockchain, financial innovation, and so on, to issue so-called virtual currencies, virtual assets, and digital assets to raise funds, infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of the public. On June 3, the Office of the Leading Group for the Disposal of Illegal Fundraising in Shanxi Province issued a reminder that such activities are not genuinely based on blockchain technology, but rather are illegal fundraising, pyramid schemes, and fraud disguised as hype. Consumers should enhance their risk awareness, refrain from participating in speculative activities, and be cautious to avoid damage to their personal property and rights.Currently, there are three main characteristics of illegal fundraising using the concept of blockchain.First, there is a clear trend of networking and cross-border activities. Relying on the internet and chat tools for transactions, and using online payment tools for fund inflow and outflow, the risk spreads widely and rapidly. Some criminals set up websites by renting overseas servers, effectively targeting domestic residents while remotely controlling illegal activities. Some individuals claim in chat group tools to have access to high-quality overseas blockchain project investment quotas and can invest on behalf of others, which is highly likely to be fraudulent activity. Much of the funds from these illegal activities flow overseas, making regulation and tracking very difficult.Second, there is a strong element of deception, temptation, and concealment. By exploiting hot concepts for speculation, some even use celebrities to promote their schemes, enticing with airdrops and claiming short investment cycles, high returns, and low risks, which are highly seductive, concealed, and misleading. In actual operations, criminals manipulate behind the scenes, setting thresholds for profit and withdrawal to illegally reap huge profits.Third, there are various illegal risks involved. Criminals publicly promote static returns (appreciation profits) and dynamic returns (profits from developing downlines) as bait to attract the public to invest funds, and entice investors to recruit others, continuously expanding the funding pool, which exhibits characteristics of illegal fundraising, pyramid schemes, and fraud.

ChainCatcher news, according to the WeChat official account of the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department, recently, the Xinghualing Branch of the Taiyuan Public Security Bureau in Shanxi Province has dismantled a criminal chain that provided "money laundering" services for telecom fraud gangs through the buying and selling of cigarettes and the use of virtual currency transactions. A total of 23 criminal suspects were arrested, involving 43 telecom fraud cases, with a total amount of nearly 84 million yuan.The police remind that this is a new type of money laundering method for telecom fraud, which uses the offline buying and selling of easily liquidated goods like cigarettes to "clean" illegal funds, and then further launders the money by exchanging it for virtual currency and transferring the funds abroad.