Newshot Beware of “Scan the QR Code to Claim Cash”: Douyin Works with Police to Crack Down on the Fraud Chain Behind Counterfeit Gift Cards
IT之家 November 13 news: According to Douyin Blackboard, since the beginning of this year, in response to criminals impersonating Douyin to send “gift cards” and “cash cards” and using “scan the QR code to claim cash” as a lure to channel users to overseas fraud syndicates, Douyin has continued to cooperate with police in multiple locations on offline crackdowns, dismantling several fraud-related gangs. Douyin reminds users: Douyin officially will not use mailed cards, attached small gifts, or similar methods to guide users to scan QR codes and enter third-party pages to claim benefits. Do not readily believe fraud scripts such as “scan the QR code to win a prize” or “add customer service to redeem.”
In response to this type of fraud impersonating Douyin, the Douyin Anti-Fraud Center has built a “fraud-related small card” clue-mining model, precisely identifying a group of people in the black and gray industries who design, produce, print, and distribute small cards by courier, and has reported the clues to local police. In September 2026, Shanwei police arrested a suspect surnamed Zhong.
Investigation found that Zhong took “orders” through an overseas social media app and used 5 Douyin accounts to scan QR codes 6,581 times in total, testing whether 1,157 QR code links provided by overseas black-market actors could be accessed normally. At the same time, following the “Douyin cash card” script provided by the other party, she impersonated customer service and chatted with potential victims who had scanned the codes, inducing them to add other contact methods, thereby channeling traffic to overseas fraud syndicates and settling earnings based on the number of people channeled.
According to the police handling the case, the QR code links Zhong helped test have now been linked to 60 cases of telecom and online fraud. Zhong has been criminally detained by police on suspicion of the crime of assisting information network criminal activities.
IT之家 noted that, in addition to link testing and customer-service traffic channeling, the offline chain of sending fraud-related cards in bulk is also a focus of police investigation. In a case handled by Dezhou police in Shandong, Douyin worked with police to trace the source and found that the person who tested links for the fraud-related cards was precisely Zhong, who was arrested in the Shanwei case.
In July this year, Dezhou police in Shandong dismantled a fraud-related traffic-channeling gang, seizing at the scene in the warehouse involved more than 10,000 parcels of counterfeit Douyin refund cards and more than 20,000 promotional cards impersonating other platforms for red envelopes and refunds. According to the suspects’ accounts, about 300,000 such cards had already flowed out.
Investigation found that, starting in June 2026, Liu gathered Cui, He, and others and moved to Dezhou, illegally profiting by mailing parcels of fraud-related traffic-channeling cards for overseas fraud syndicates: Liu contacted upstream handlers through an overseas social media app, received tasks, and settled earnings; Cui was responsible for receiving goods, printing courier waybills, and mailing items externally; He was responsible for leasing warehouse storage and purchasing packaging materials. The three rented a shop specifically for printing courier waybills, rented a warehouse in an industrial park to store fraud-related parcels, and temporarily hired people to paste waybills in bulk.
Police continued tracing along the parcel information and found that the fraud-related parcels were mailed separately from two courier outlets. The persons in charge of the outlets concerned, in order to improve performance, failed to implement customer access review and open-box inspection systems, resulting in the outflow of a large number of fraud-related couriers. They have all now been arrested by police.
Staff at the Douyin Anti-Fraud Center said that overseas fraud syndicates distribute each step through the internet to different people or gangs who do not know one another, increasing the difficulty of clue tracing and full-chain crackdowns.
Douyin reminds users that Douyin will not induce users to scan QR codes to claim prizes by mailing so-called “cash cards” or “exclusive gift cards,” nor will it require users to complete benefit redemption through off-platform links, unfamiliar QR codes, or unofficial customer service channels. If users encounter suspicious situations, they can open the Douyin App and search for “验证助手” (Verification Assistant), enter the suspicious caller number, text message, or website, and upload images or QR code photos to verify whether the information is official Douyin information.