In recent years, digital collections have gradually entered China from overseas, enriching the digital trading market. However, due to their anonymity, easy trading, and high price fluctuations, they can also be used by criminals. How can digital collections be used for fraud? What warnings does the related chaos bring to the digital collection industry? Banyuetan reporters launched an investigation into this.

According to industry insiders,"digital collections" are electronic collectibles that come in various forms such as pictures, music, videos, 3D models, and electronic tickets. Using blockchain technology to generate different digital vouchers for different collections, it can be realized Digital distribution, purchase, and collection have the characteristics of non-tampering, non-splitting, and limited issuance. It is called "NFT (Non-Homogeneous Token)" in foreign markets.

In December 2023, the Public Security Bureau of Yuan 'an County, Hubei Province, destroyed a fraud gang that used "meta-universe and blockchain" as a gimmick to produce and sell digital collections through AI technology. It arrested 26 suspects, seized more than 30 computers and more than 200 mobile phones involved in the case, and froze more than 3 million yuan in funds involved in the case.

After investigation, since March 2022, four key members of the gang's main suspect, Hei Moumou, have produced and operated digital cultural and creative collections under the banner of a cultural media group. They have used the group's ICP registration number and its cultural and creative collection platforms to carry out false publicity with the same or similar logos and sell digital collections on the trading platform. According to statistics, the trading website currently receives more than 15 million yuan in funds delivered by "customers", and more than 5000 people have been deceived. The amount of fraud has reached more than 12 million yuan. Some victims have been deceived at most of more than 90,000 yuan.

"Digital collections must first produce content and then sell online." Industry insiders told Banyuetan reporters that in terms of content production, the production process of digital collections can be divided into "digital native" and "digital twins", which refer to direct product creation in the digital world and the formation of physical art through painting, scanning, etc. Digital collections. Compared with physical art collections, the "ownership" and "copyright" of digital collections can be separated, and the rights certificates of different platforms are independent of each other, and platform owners can independently formulate collection rules.

"The platform is self-produced and sold, which greatly reduces the cost of hype." "Metaverse Zoye", a blogger for analyzing digital collections at Station B, said that some platforms will buy all their remaining collections, creating the illusion that they are sold out in one second. As the number of collections circulating in the market decreases, supply and demand are unbalanced, and prices rise. Some experts said that in addition to scarcity hype, many platforms use "digital blind boxes" and "purchase rights unlocking" to sell dolls, which also enhances the uncertainty of the digital collection market.

"Collection production and platform operation and maintenance are two major factors in the operation of the digital collection market, and related chaos also revolves around both." Song Aoyang, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Yuan 'an County Public Security Bureau, said that at present, the digital collection market is not yet mature, and art appreciation and speculation are mixed together. Many Tibetan friends do not have enough discrimination ability and have been exploited by criminals.

"In order to maintain the frequency of the collection flow, we will try to avoid the collection being short of popularity or being hyped up too much." Hei Moumou, the main criminal suspect in the above-mentioned gang, confessed that after the victims entered the game, the gang mainly sought benefits by maintaining the platform, manipulating the price and transaction frequency of the products, and collecting transaction fees. For every transaction completed by a "customer", the platform will charge a handling fee of 4% of the transaction price. When the customer submits the transaction, the platform will charge a handling fee of 3% to achieve long-term profits.

In the bud of new things, some people also take advantage of the chaos to "roll up money and run away." On March 14, the People's Court of Minhang District, Shanghai City issued an announcement on the verification of information on fund-raising participants for the crime of digital collection fund-raising fraud. It is understood that the defendant Zhang Moumou developed a digital collection network platform through an outsourcing company, packaging pictures purchased or downloaded online into "digital collections" and putting them on shelves, publicizing that "digital collections have room for appreciation" and "the company promises to regularly double" repurchase ", etc., in order to attract investment from victims. Subsequently, the defendant Zhang Moumou and others withdrew and divided the money paid by the victim. At the same time, they stopped renewing platform servers and dissolved relevant social platform Group chats.

"The current common illegal crimes in digital collections are essentially fraud." The police said that whether it is operating a platform or "running away with money", most criminals are suspected of carrying out false publicity by falsely using brands and trademarks, creating false identities, and promising rebates to buy back, causing victims to form false perceptions and then being deceived.

How to manage digital collections well

"Although it is still in its infancy, the digital collection market is moving towards rationality and maturity at a very steady pace." Qin Zhiyong, executive director of Zhongchuan Yuezhong (Beijing) Cultural Development Co., Ltd., believes that digital collections cannot be understood simply from the perspective of commodities. Their development trend is the right transaction in the digital copyright market, which can allow protected intellectual property rights to fully create in the digital world. Value, strive to avoid the monopoly of large platforms and large capital on the digital creation market, improve the participation and voice of ordinary netizens, cater to the flat operating logic of the Internet era, and have certain market prospects.

Legal sources said that at present, China has not issued targeted regulatory rules on the qualifications of entities, issuance models, transaction rules, rights and interests of participants in the digital collection market. The risk prevention mechanism is relatively imperfect, and it mainly relies on the alliance chain to conduct qualification reviews to allow the industry to self-manage under policy guidance.

A survey by Banyuetan reporters found that in order to limit the hype of digital collections, well-known domestic digital collection distribution platforms have issued regulations or statements, such as stating in the registration agreement that "any form of resale of digital collections is not supported" or stipulating that "works cannot be resold or not Transferred", but it still cannot completely restrict secondary market transactions.

Banyuetan reporter spent 6.8 yuan on a second-hand trading platform to purchase a digital collection of Dunhuang murals called "Shuiyue Guanyin Xuanzang Sutra". After the seller confirmed the purchase account information, he transferred the collection from the platform to the Banyuetan reporter's name. When the Banyuetan reporter wanted to transfer the gift again, the platform issued a prompt:Digital collections can be transferred to real-name users over the age of 14 after 24 hours of purchase or 24 hours after receipt.

"Digital collections are a kind of online virtual property and one of the important areas of the digital economy. However, the risks such as fraud, illegal fund-raising, and infringement of intellectual property rights that may arise from their issuance and transactions cannot be ignored." Ren Shanyou, a lawyer at Hubei Yingchu Law Firm, believes that taking intellectual property infringement as an example, anyone who makes other people's works into digital collections for distribution or trading without permission may infringe the copyright owner's rights to copy and disseminate information on the Internet.