Blind boxes, or mystery boxes, which reveal a random item when opened, have become a popular business model followed by toymakers, retailers, souvenir designers, and swindlers.
Shanghai police say they are investigating a gang believed to have scammed viewers by opening blind boxes on livestreams.
A man surnamed Wang told police in the Pudong New Area in July that he had been scammed out of more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,370) during a livestream.
Wang said he had stumbled upon a livestream featuring the opening of blind boxes.
A host introduces each blind box with a scratch-off area, and a total of 12 types of prizes ranging from 1 to 12 stars, each corresponding to different credits. The more stars a viewer gets, the more credits they would have, with 12 stars corresponding to 250,000 credits, and 1 credit equaled to 1 yuan.
Wang noticed that many viewers were frequently interacting with the host and opening high-star blind boxes, winning substantial prizes.
After Wang left a comment, livestream staff approached him via WeChat. Soon afterwards, Wang transferred amounts ranging from 300 to 500 yuan several times to place orders for drawing blind boxes.
However, after transferring over 10,000 yuan, Wang had still not won any high-value prize. He realized he had been scammed and called the police.
Pudong police found that the livestream, which advertised itself as a platform for opening blind boxes, was a new type of online fraud operated by a five-person gang.
During the livestream, with Liu, one of the core members, as host, Chai, another member, would pose as a viewer and flood the chat with messages. At the same time, they would lure other viewers to participate by frequently offering large prizes.
Then, members Bai and Xu, acting as customer service representatives, would guide viewers to add them as WeChat friends and make payments through WeChat transfers to open blind boxes. Ordinary viewers who participated, however, had no chance of winning high-star prizes.
The five are subject to further investigation.
Shanghai police said they had strengthened the management of content on Internet platforms this year, removing over 2.13 million pieces of illegal and harmful content and suspending more than 104,000 accounts.
Blind boxes in the livestream.
They are also strengthening supervision and punishment of data abuse and infringement of people's' information.
In another case, Baoshan police officers arrested more than 110 hotel managers for illegally providing guests' information to a company that operates shared chargers.
The company said that they were able to provide a free "click farming" service by using guests' information after the shared chargers were put into use in hotels.
Shanghai police said they have taken stringent measures to crack down on various online crimes, including hacking and spreading online rumors, solving more than 8,000 cases related to the Internet.
Shared charging devices seized by police.
