On January 7, 2026, police in multiple locations including Shanghai, Yunnan, Gansu, and Hainan issued risk alerts almost simultaneously, exposing a scam method that uses forged supermarket tasting cards to attract victims, and further pointing to a suspected money laundering chain linked to the cryptocurrency sector. Familiar traditional methods of attracting new customers, such as supermarket promotions and scanning QR codes to join WeChat groups, have been combined by criminal gangs with virtual currency settlements, transforming into an entry point for telecom network fraud. This article dissects the evolution path from offline "tasting cards" to online "cryptocurrency funding channels," analyzing the upgrade of criminal techniques and the new pressures and challenges it brings to anti-fraud efforts.

Fake Tasting Cards Reveal Deep Scam Pitfalls

In cases disclosed by police in Shanghai, Yunnan, and other areas, criminals first appear in the least guarded scenarios for citizens—around community supermarkets, at mall entrances, and on crowded streets. They create offline materials such as "supermarket tasting cards" and "coupons" that closely resemble those of legitimate businesses, claiming that by scanning a QR code, adding WeChat, or joining a group on-site, individuals can receive free tastings, redeem small gifts, or participate in discount activities. For ordinary people accustomed to various offline promotions, such invitations seamlessly blend into their daily consumption environment, making it easy to let down their guard.

The real trap only becomes apparent after entering the WeChat group. Once victims join the group or are added as friends, they receive enticing pitches for "ground promotion part-time jobs," "simple new customer referrals for daily payouts," and "small rebate tasks," initially establishing trust with low-threshold small rewards, then gradually guiding them to transfer money, advance funds, or even participate in so-called investment and financial management or order brushing for cash back. Police repeatedly remind the public not to engage in similar QR code scanning or new customer referral part-time activities for small gains, as beneath these seemingly common marketing shells, traditional fraud processes have already been quietly embedded. Familiar offline consumption scenarios are used as packaging, significantly lowering victims' vigilance and making these scams more confusing and disguised than the conventional "stranger calls + links" old tricks.

Cryptocurrency Funding Channels Behind WeChat Groups

The focus of police reports from various regions remains on the inducement to join groups and the execution of scams. However, according to information from a single source, these gangs, after completing the front-end financial harvesting, are suspected of quickly funneling the illicit funds into the virtual currency system, completing settlements and transfers through the cryptocurrency sector. For investigators accustomed to tracking paths using traditional bank accounts, this means that the visible link from "bank card to bank card" is being replaced by a multi-layered unwrapping path from "bank card to virtual currency wallet." The characteristics of virtual currency, such as facilitating cross-border flows and high levels of anonymity, are seen by criminals as key tools for enhancing concealment. Once combined with multiple intermediary wallets and overseas platforms, the flow of funds quickly becomes obscure.

Starting from the victims' bank accounts and payment accounts, funds typically first concentrate in the accounts of so-called "task coordinators" or "part-time supervisors," then are rapidly split and transferred into different named accounts, flowing into over-the-counter traders or virtual currency trading channels, ultimately sinking into blockchain wallet addresses that are difficult to discern. This layered transfer "unwrapping" route presents more practical challenges for police when tracking and freezing illicit funds. The official evaluation of related techniques as "highly concealable" is a succinct summary of the risks associated with this funding channel. When seemingly ordinary task links in WeChat groups ultimately connect to cryptocurrency wallet addresses, the boundary between fraud and money laundering is technically blurred.

1.8 Billion Money Laundering Case Reflects Regulatory Pressure

Around the time local police were warning about the "tasting card" scam, the People's Procuratorate of Baoshan District in Shanghai recently reported a money laundering case that provides a more concrete reference for this chain. According to information from a single source, the case involved approximately 1.8 billion yuan, with suspects similarly using virtual currency to achieve large-scale fund splitting and cross-border transfers. Unlike the supermarket tasting cards, the facade used in this case was shopping rebates and consumption coupons that appeared to be routine commercial activities, but the logic was highly similar: first, use everyday consumption scenarios to attract funds, then embed cryptocurrency settlement channels at the base to complete the "cleaning."

From fake tasting cards to shopping rebates, these cases dilute the presence of crime by presenting an appearance of "normal consumption," making the funds appear as nothing more than ordinary offline transaction records before entering the blockchain world. For judicial authorities and regulatory bodies, this combination of "real transactions + virtual currency" greatly amplifies the difficulty of gathering evidence—clarifying which are genuine purchases and which are funds disguised as consumption, while also tracking the flow and ownership of funds on the blockchain. The scale of money laundering at the level of 1.8 billion yuan not only reflects the attraction of virtual currency in the black and gray markets but also exposes the increasing pressure on traditional regulatory frameworks when faced with the combined model of "cryptocurrency + offline."

Traditional Anti-Fraud Messaging Fails Against New Scams

In recent years, the main battlefield for anti-fraud publicity has primarily focused on typical scenarios such as unfamiliar calls, online loans, nude chats, and order brushing websites, with slogans like "do not answer unfamiliar calls" and "do not click on unknown links" becoming household phrases. However, as criminal gangs shift their focus to supermarket entrances and street promotion stalls, engaging target groups through methods like scanning QR codes for gifts, filling out forms to participate in activities, or doing simple referral part-time jobs, a clear misalignment has emerged between traditional messaging and the new reality of offline lead generation. People are more accustomed to viewing these actions as promotions or everyday business activities rather than precursors to telecom fraud, making it easier to overlook the connection between anti-fraud warnings and their own behaviors.

Once the fund settlement process is further linked to virtual currency, the anchor of "visible accounts" in anti-fraud messaging also becomes less stable. Victims often only realize they are transferring money to a personal account or a platform's payment code, but find it hard to imagine that the backend funds could be quickly converted into digital assets on the blockchain, flowing into a wallet address with an unclear identity. The simultaneous statements from police in multiple regions reflect the pressure faced by grassroots authorities when confronting this new scam model of "offline lead generation + virtual currency settlement": on one hand, there is a need to quickly update the knowledge and training content for frontline police and publicity personnel, and on the other hand, they must also address the accompanying technical demands, from analyzing chat records and payment QR codes to understanding the flow of funds on the blockchain, all of which are far more complex than the previous simple phone scams.

How Ordinary People Can Identify the "Part-Time + Cryptocurrency" Trap

For ordinary people, the key to preventing such scams lies in refining the police's reminder of "do not be greedy for small gains" into an actionable self-checklist. Any offline part-time projects that use small rewards as bait and require on-site or short-term completion of QR code scanning, bringing people into groups, collecting and paying funds, or recharging phone bills or cash back should be approached with high vigilance. Even if the disclosed business name and venue setup appear highly consistent with real stores, verification should not be relaxed. It is particularly important to pay attention to any requests for upfront payments or transfers to obtain higher rebates, as these can be considered high-risk signals, prompting an immediate decision to cut losses and exit.

In terms of task types, if the other party requests downloading unfamiliar apps, guides to enter unknown platforms for so-called "cryptocurrency investment and financial management," or cash back in the form of digital assets, they have already crossed the boundary of ordinary part-time work. Such arrangements not only involve investment risks but may also be part of a money laundering process. If unfortunate losses occur, one should report to the police immediately and preserve evidence as completely as possible, including chat records, transfer screenshots, payment code information, and digital clues from WeChat or QQ group data, to provide a basis for police to trace the flow of funds and identify the gang. Only when everyone can proactively conduct a risk self-check before participating in part-time, promotional, or rebate activities, linking phrases like "easy money" and "earn hundreds a day with a few taps" to fraud scenarios, can new scams be recognized by more people before they spread.

Familiar Offline Scenes Are Being Taken Over by Criminal Gangs

From forged supermarket tasting cards to ultimately falling into virtual currency money laundering channels, this path is essentially a criminal evolution of "familiar shell + unfamiliar underlying." Criminal gangs have occupied the offline consumption scenarios that once provided people with the most peace of mind, transforming them into entry points for scams, while simultaneously building cryptocurrency links that are out of public view at the funding level, tightly connecting the surface-level QR code gift collection with the underlying cross-border money laundering. To reclaim this territory, regulatory authorities need to systematically embed the ability to identify and handle virtual currency funding chains within the existing framework for combating false advertising, rectifying illegal promotions, and misleading marketing, ensuring that "seemingly normal consumption activities" can no longer easily serve as a cover for fund unwrapping.

The future anti-fraud game will be difficult to rely on a single point of defense in any one scenario or link; instead, it must build an overall interception system around "offline lead generation + online funds": offline, establishing more sensitive monitoring and verification mechanisms for abnormal promotions, suspicious part-time jobs, and high-frequency QR code activities; online, enhancing funding monitoring, cross-institutional collaboration, and blockchain analysis to fill the technical gaps in addressing virtual currency channels. When we re-understand the risks carried by these "familiar scenes" around us and simultaneously upgrade at the institutional and technical levels, the sense of security taken away by criminal gangs may gradually be reclaimed.

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