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Scams and swindles
AbacusCulture

E-commerce schemes involving empty boxes, QR codes and fake tracking numbers are linked to gambling and money laundering in China

  • Police uncovered 2,700 websites involved in empty package schemes that are used for money laundering
  • Mysterious empty packages have long been used in so-called brushing scams to boost e-commerce sellers’ ratings

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So-called empty package scams don’t even need the packages anymore. Fake tracking codes are used to launder money across borders. Photo: Nora Tam
Masha Borak

E-commerce is giving money laundering a modern makeover. Empty packages from China showing up on doorsteps are often linked to unscrupulous online sellers trying to boost sales numbers in what’s called a brushing scheme. But investigators in China say these mysterious packages are also being used for more nefarious purposes.

Police in the city of Wuxi, northwest of Shanghai, recently busted an operation that used a so-called empty package scheme to launder illegal cross-border gambling money, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday.

In this case, the physical packages were never even sent. The suspects used empty package delivery services to create false online shopping and delivery records to disguise illegal transactions.

“From gamblers’ deposits to fabricated transactions, the whole system is very complex and it runs on online platforms,” Guan Lichao, an internet security supervisor with the Wuxi Public Security Bureau, told Xinhua.

While gambling is illegal in China, this doesn’t stop platforms from catering to people in the country while running their operations elsewhere. But operators have to use some creative tricks to move their money around.

Police say the scheme they discovered involves gambling platforms using third-party payment providers to transfer their gains and make it look like someone just bought a new knick-knack online.

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