Jing'an police crack down on a gang using AI plug-ins to snap up Pop Mart blind boxes, 25 arrested

"As soon as we walked in, we saw blind boxes piled up halfway up a wall." Recently, in a case involving the illegal purchase of blind boxes using plug-ins, Jing'an police witnessed such a scene at the site. A black-market chain spanning the entire process—from plug-in development and distribution to using plug-ins to snap up goods and reselling them for profit—was then uncovered, with 25 people involved arrested and more than 5 million yuan in illegal gains verified. At the search site, illegally purchased designer toy blind boxes were piled up like mountains. Photo courtesy of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. In August this year, Jing'an police discovered during online patrols that in some designer toy WeChat group chats, individuals claimed they could increase the success rate of snapping up limited-edition Pop Mart designer toys, and anyone who inquired further would be recommended a plug-in software. Police preliminarily determined that the people involved were suspected of online illegal and criminal activity. After further gathering clues, police identified a four-person criminal gang led by Wei. At the end of last year, Wei, who runs a jewelry store, used AI to write several plug-in programs; Du, who has technical expertise, was responsible for updating the plug-ins; Zhang was responsible for sales; and Lin provided installation guidance. The four had a clear division of labor and split the profits equally. Xing Xingliang, an appraiser at the Shanghai Jueyin Electronic Data Judicial Appraisal Institute, said the plug-in software bypassed the protection system of Pop Mart's official sales channels and could automatically scan and check product inventory around the clock, capture sources of limited-edition goods, and at the same time place orders quickly and automatically, with a success rate far higher than manual operation. Gao Yifan, head of the First Squadron of the Cyber Security Protection Detachment of the Jing'an Public Security Sub-Bureau, said that to obtain more profits, Wei and others recruited seven people including Li to act as agents selling the plug-in programs. After being brought to justice, criminal suspect Li confessed that they usually sold the plug-ins under names such as "XX product assistant," with prices ranging from 100 yuan to 700 yuan, generally priced at 280 yuan for a monthly card and 580 yuan for a permanent card. "Many people who buy plug-ins act as 'scalpers,' snapping up goods on others' behalf and hoarding and reselling products," Gao Yifan said. For example, after purchasing a 580-yuan permanent card, 30% of the illegal gains from each resale order must be shared with the upstream gang; the share for monthly cards is smaller, so the unit price is higher. Ultimately, police arrested 14 plug-in users including Zhao, whose illegal gains ranged from 5,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan. "Scalpers" use mobile phones equipped with plug-in programs to sweep goods and snap up orders. Photo courtesy of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. Police said that providing plug-in programs for snapping up goods to others is suspected of the crime of providing programs for illegally controlling computer information systems; individuals using plug-ins to illegally obtain platform transaction data are suspected of the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. At present, all 25 criminal suspects in this case have been subjected to criminal coercive measures in accordance with the law.