"Yuantong Express" Gift-Inducing Task Scam: Using Fake Courier Names to Send Watches and Lure Victims into Rebate Fraud

Who Gets Targeted

The victims are mainly consumers with daily online shopping habits, especially the elderly and minors at home during summer vacation. Their psychological vulnerability lies in their natural trust in "package delivery" information and the wishful thinking of profiting from "free gifts," making them prone to lowering their guard for small gains. Once lured into a group, they are gradually drawn into a sunk-cost trap stimulated by initial small rewards, eventually becoming trapped in high-value task orders and suffering massive financial losses.

骗局怎么运作

• Scammers use spoofing software or high-frequency outbound calling systems to call target phone numbers, with the caller ID intentionally registered as "Yuantong Express" or other names highly similar to legitimate courier companies to lower the victim's guard. After the victim answers, the scammer poses as courier customer service, claiming a package cannot be delivered or that recipient information needs to be confirmed, creating a plausible pretext for the subsequent fraud.
• During the call, the scammer uses free physical gifts like smartwatches or small appliances as bait, telling the victim they must add a specific WeChat account or scan a QR code to join a group to process the claim. By exploiting the victim's greed for small gains, they smoothly transfer the victim from the phone channel to a private traffic pool, completing the initial lead generation.
• After adding the WeChat account, the scammer posts fake courier tracking numbers and videos of watches being shipped in the group to create the illusion that a legitimate platform event is underway. They then inform the victim that to receive the gift early or earn extra commissions, they must download a specific mobile app or click a link to participate in "liking" or "merchant task" activities, officially starting the second phase of the task-based scam.
• Once the victim downloads the app or joins the group chat, the scammer assigns small rebate tasks, such as following an official account for a few yuan. After the victim tastes success and successfully withdraws the money, their trust in the platform increases sharply. The scammer then introduces "combined consecutive orders" or "high-commission advance payment orders," requiring the victim to transfer money to a designated account to complete virtual product purchases, promising a return of principal and interest.
• When the victim invests thousands of yuan in principal, the scammer refuses to allow withdrawals, citing reasons like "operation error," "data not transmitted," or "need to perform a repair order to unfreeze," and demands additional transfers. This creates a closed loop of "recharge-perform task-cannot withdraw-recharge again" until the victim's savings are exhausted or they realize the anomaly and report it to the police, at which point the scammer dissolves the group and blocks the victim.
• To cut off the victim's path to help, scammers set up fake "online customer service" and "police report accepted" pop-ups within the app, falsely claiming that the victim's bank cards will be frozen due to breach of contract. They may even induce the victim to send cash or gold via ride-hailing services to designated locations, further implementing physical asset transfer to evade bank and police tracking.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 The caller ID displays the company name as "Yuantong Express" instead of the legitimate "YTO Express," indicating a deliberate use of homophones to bypass platform real-name authentication and brand verification.
• 🚩 The other party promises free high-value physical gifts without cause and requires the victim to leave the original e-commerce platform or logistics channel to add a private WeChat or scan a QR code to join a group.
• 🚩 The chat group frequently posts notifications to download unfamiliar mobile apps or click unknown short links, and these apps cannot be found in any official mobile app stores.
• 🚩 After completing a very small initial order and receiving an immediate rebate, the victim is immediately presented with high-value "combined consecutive orders" that require out-of-pocket advance payments of thousands of yuan.
• 🚩 The victim encounters system friction during withdrawal, with customer service making endless promises but demanding further payments, accompanied by threats of account banning or asset freezing to force the victim to transfer more money to "unfreeze" the account.
• 🚩 The other party requests that cash or gold be sent to unfamiliar locations via ride-hailing services or local courier services, or even across provinces and cities for physical handover of funds or valuables.

真实案例

• According to reports from public security bureaus in various provinces and cities, between July and August 2026, consumers who trusted "Yuantong Express" customer service added a WeChat account after receiving a call from someone claiming to be from logistics. After successfully completing the first task, victims were introduced to online groups for fake task-based apps to perform advance-payment tasks. Victims initially tasted small rebates, but after increasing their investment, they were met with repeated refusals to withdraw funds by scammers citing "system data errors," losing hundreds of thousands of yuan in savings within a few days. The specific companies and suspect names have been anonymized by public security authorities.
• According to information released by police in various regions in August 2026, victims across the country started by receiving calls from people impersonating courier staff. The callers used excuses like "package abnormality" or "sending gifts" to obtain the victim's WeChat ID and pull them into group chats. Scammers posing as "group admins" in the chat issued several small rebate tasks to cover up their true intentions, then launched high-value consecutive tasks, causing individual losses ranging from thousands to over a hundred thousand yuan. Real names were not disclosed in police reports.
• According to aggregated reports, after scammers invited users to join their social circle with "free watches," they lured victims who completed the first task to specific fake e-commerce platform apps to place bets. One victim was induced to transfer tens of thousands of yuan to a designated account after downloading the app, only to find themselves kicked out of the group chat and unable to recover the funds. All names of involved persons and company information were handled with pseudonyms according to law, with no mention of real entities in public information.
• In April 2024, according to CCTV News, the Yuyao Public Security Bureau in Ningbo, Zhejiang, cracked a network task-based fraud case: victims received strange courier packages containing small gifts and vouchers; scanning the code to claim cash red envelopes was actually a trap for lead generation. Police conducted a coordinated crackdown on the red envelope lead-generation link, arresting 17 suspects with a total involved amount of 3.167 million yuan. (Source: https://m.cyol.com/gb/articles/2024-04/23/content_lbG9KguWRO.html)
• On March 14, 2025, the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing sentenced a case involving fraud-related courier packages: Nie, Xiong, Fu, and Huang cumulatively sent 400,000 fraud-related packages. Recipients were induced to perform task-based scams after scanning codes, leading to over ten telecommunications fraud cases with an involved amount of over 4.5 million yuan. The four were convicted of aiding information network criminal activities and sentenced to prison terms ranging from ten months to two years and six months. (Source: https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s68c7f830e4b0221b9bece83e.html)

Official Stance

• Sina Finance published an article on August 7, 2026, warning the public to be alert to the resurgence of the "Yuantong Express" call-to-add-WeChat-for-a-watch scam, urging citizens not to trust such calls.
• NetEase News reposted a public warning in August 2026: The "Yuantong Express" call-to-add-WeChat-for-a-watch scam is resurging and occurring frequently in many places, urging the public to stay vigilant and download anti-fraud software.
• The Zhangjiagang Public Security Bureau previously issued a warning: "Free gifts? Careful, it's a scam!", focusing on reminding the public to guard against telecommunications fraud using free gifts as bait and to strengthen awareness.
• Kuaishou Security Center issued a notice on August 3, 2026, reminding users to be alert to six types of scams targeting minors during the summer vacation, including "free gifts" and inducing task-based rebates, urging minors and guardians to protect their finances.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ When receiving a call from someone claiming to be courier customer service, always verify the package status through the official mobile app or the customer service channel on the official website. Do not trust the name displayed on the caller ID; hang up and call the courier company's official customer service number yourself to verify.
• ✅ Refuse any requests to add private WeChat accounts, join groups, or download unknown mobile apps to claim packages or gifts. Legitimate logistics companies will never ask users to make advance payments or transfers on third-party platforms for any reason.
• ✅ Maintain high vigilance against any task-based invitations involving "advance payment before rebate" or "completing tasks for commission." Remember that task-based activities are inherently against regulations, and any activity requiring advance payment or transfer for rebates is highly likely to be a fraud trap.
• ✅ Once you realize you have been pulled into a task-based prize group or asked to download software for tasks, stop immediately. Save evidence such as chat logs, call recordings, and transfer receipts, and call the police immediately to seek help and seize the best opportunity to freeze assets and stop losses.