Can following the rules be called rebirth?

Chapter 162, Section 160: The Choice
"Don't be fooled by Teacher Shen's high academic qualifications; this matter has nothing to do with academic qualifications."

"For groups like those within the system and educators who have high social image requirements, being scammed not only means financial loss, but also what else does it mean, do you know?"

Zhou Mingyuan turned his head and looked at his obedient little assistant beside him.

"do not know."

He Min hadn't considered this at all and shook her head.

"Stupid! Unprofessional! Brainless! Once this gets out, her colleagues will easily label her that way, especially since Professor Shen is a counselor at the law school, you know?"

"."

He Min's mouth formed an "O" shape as she suddenly realized.

Indeed it is.

Sometimes, the overwhelming social fear of death can overwhelm the courage to seek legitimate help.

Although the role of a counselor is completely different from that of a lecturer or professor, and law school counselors are not necessarily from a legal background, outsiders still tend to attach this stereotype to them.

A 28-year-old law school counselor, still unmarried, was scammed while trying to find love online.
Let alone Shen Yunrong, even He Min, as a woman, felt breathless when she put herself in that position.

“Look at this screenshot of her chat history, and the transfer information.”

Zhou Mingyuan opened the picture and pointed it at the screen to indicate it to He Min.

"Can we find anything?"

"Uh, did you discover she transferred a lot of money?"

The novice lawyer, He Min, looked bewildered and racked her brains to give a response.

"No, no, no, look at the banks where the main receiving cards are opened. They're all in the same place, which means the other party is most likely in China."

"Furthermore, the fact that the account holders share the same last name indicates that these were not black cards specifically purchased for trading."

Zhou Mingyuan said with a smile.

For legal experts of later generations, looking back more than a decade later to re-examine this method of crime, it is undoubtedly a game-changer.

Zhou Luguang has already discerned quite a bit just by sitting here analyzing.

He felt that there were loopholes everywhere.

The opponent was not the kind of well-organized, overseas pig-slaughtering group that operated in a coordinated manner.

The funds have most likely not been laundered or transferred out of the country, and the person himself may even be physically in China.

In fact, in 2014, when the internet was just emerging, those involved in "pig butchering scams" were also in the exploratory and developmental stage.

Most businesses are operating on a small scale within China; the time for large-scale relocation to Southeast Asia has not yet arrived.

Social media apps and platforms are new things in themselves, as is online dating through identity fraud.

Not to mention the technical barriers: setting up your own server, splitting the flow of funds, buying black cards to launder money and then leaving the country.
Those are all too high-end.

Nobody plays it.

These days, technology is still in its infancy.

Creating a persona of a "company CEO" or "highly educated elite," then fabricating crudely imitated investment reasons, and specifically crafting scripts to target older single women who lack love, is definitely a rather sophisticated and respectable way to swindle money.

There are many more that are not high-end or sophisticated.

For example, scams involving honey traps, bar scams, and various other scams on social media platforms, luring gullible people into extorting money, are as common as mushrooms after rain.

The internet's brutal era is a double-edged sword; for those with cunning, making money is easy, but turning to the black and gray industries is equally easy.

In 2014, what level of awareness or vigilance did the public have?
Society has almost no awareness of the concept of "pig butchering scams," and victims are often blamed for "vanity" rather than the criminal scheme.

Let alone pig butchering scams, even victims of honey traps—those who are lured to bars and restaurants by scammers and end up spending thousands or tens of thousands of yuan—rarely choose to report it to Uncle Hat immediately. The shame is one reason.

On the other hand, it's because there's no official definition of this.

Such cases have not been established as independent crimes or special strategies for combating them. In some places, they are even judged as ordinary romantic disputes and simply not accepted, with the parties directly advised to resolve them through civil channels.

Pushing down to the last line of defense for fairness and justice—the courts.

It wasn't until these types of cases became more and more numerous, involved larger and larger sums of money, and became more and more systematic that many people belatedly realized this.

With the lack of regulation of online dating and the absence of anti-fraud education, online dating scams, which are characterized by localized crimes, crude technology, precise targeting but limited scale, have quietly transformed into cross-border and industrialized "pig butchering scam 2.0".

"It seems that Teacher Shen has vaguely realized that she has been deceived, but she is still unwilling to be sure."

He Min stared at the screen, her tone filled with deep sympathy.

"That's right, at this point we need to shatter her romantic fantasies first."

Zhou Mingyuan opened the other woman's boyfriend's selfie, easily copied and pasted it to his desktop, and opened Baidu's image search function to search for the image.

"As long as it's confirmed that the scammer's photo isn't of her, at least she can wake up."

He Min rested her chin on her hand, her bright eyes fixed on Zhou Mingyuan's actions, as if she were discovering a new world.

The image search ended, and nothing was found.

The boss remained unfazed, and somehow opened a software program entirely in English, adding some server configuration he couldn't understand at all.

Then, in the browser interface, enter the new search engine.

"Wow, my goodness, he really did steal the picture from someone else!"

He Min stared wide-eyed as Zhou Mingyuan, as if by magic, found the same photo on a Chinese-American influencer's Twitter account.

She was simply stunned.

Can you do this?

The boss isn't a hat, how could he actually find evidence from the slightest clues?
The subsequent communication became very simple.

Zhou Mingyuan sent the original owner's account information to Shen Yunrong to prove that her so-called "soulmate" was nothing but a complete fraud.

Shen Yunrong didn't reply for a long time.

"Mr. Zhou, do you think Ms. Shen will choose to apply to Uncle Hat?"

He Min leaned closer and asked with a curious expression.

"Whether she reports it or not, all we can say is that we will do our best to help her get the money back, but I'm not sure what she will choose."

Zhou Mingyuan shook his head.

There are many reasons why victims of fraud do not choose to seek help through legitimate channels.

Firstly, many people who use social media have families, and online dating is just a way to alleviate loneliness and isolation. Out of fear of affecting family harmony, their first reaction is to accept their fate.

Secondly, there is the concern about the impact on personal development. If the person being scammed has a stable and respectable job, such as a civil servant, teacher, or state-owned enterprise employee, they will often choose to give up reporting the scammer.

Another group is students.

Out of concern that the school would find out and it would affect their studies, they chose to keep quiet.

Third, they don't want others to know. Being scammed is not something to be proud of, and letting others know would definitely lower their social standing. The label of being brainless is already something to be ashamed of.

Some people may choose to endure it for the sake of saving face.

(End of this chapter)