Several consumers claimed that they could not contact “Expansive Mall” after purchasing gift cards and the mall did not deliver the goods to them: involving hundreds of thousands of yuan, and reported the case.

Recently, several consumers, including Mr. Li from Jiangxi Nanchang and Mr. Wang from Hebei, reported to The Paper’s public assistance platform “Service Pulse” (https://tousu.thepaper.cn) that “Expansion Mall” developed by Henan Black Box Media Co., Ltd. is suspected of attracting consumers through low-price sales of shopping cards, and then absconding with the funds after collecting them. Currently, more than 10 victims have been identified with amounts involved exceeding one million yuan.

In response to this dispute, The Paper has made multiple attempts to contact Expansion Mall but the phone line remains unreachable. According to business registration information, Henan Black Box Media Co., Ltd. is currently in an active state of operation.

Currently, some victims have reported the matter to the police.

Consumer Complaints:

Mr. Li explained that in February 2024, he encountered the Expansion Mall program through promotional messages in a WeChat group. The program claimed to conduct consumer expansion coupon activities in the form of “government subsidies and corporate concessions”, offering discounts of 6% to buy membership cards such as JD E-cards, Wal-Mart shopping cards, and Box Fresh supermarket cards.

At the end of February 2024, Mr. Li tried purchasing several JD E-cards and was able to successfully sell them, making a profit. Encouraged by this, he gradually increased his purchases, and by June 28th, he had spent over one million yuan on JD E-cards.

However, between June 25th and 28th, 2024, Expansion Mall suddenly stopped delivering the cards. Upon realizing something was wrong, Mr. Li contacted customer service to request a refund for the more than 300,000 yuan worth of undelivered JD E-cards. “Customer service made several promises to refund but did not fulfill them, and the Expansion Mall WeChat Mini Program could no longer be accessed.”

Mr. Li’s experience is not unique. Another victim told The Paper that more than 10 known victims have formed a rights protection group. The total amount deceived ranges from over 2,000 yuan to over 460,000 yuan, totaling 1.17 million yuan. “The手法 of Expansion Mall is similar to that of the Ponzi scheme and brushing scam. It delivers normally at first to let you taste the sweetness and increase your investment, then it absconds with the funds.”

After repeated attempts by The Paper to contact Henan Black Box Media Co., Ltd., the parent company of Expansion Mall, the phone line remained unreachable as of the time of publication.

According to business registration information, Henan Black Box Media Co., Ltd., established in November 2021, is responsible for advertising design, software development, data processing services, agency services, etc. The company is currently in an active state of operation.

Mr. Li stated that the dozen consumers in the rights protection group have already reported the case to the police. He provided a receipt showing that the仲景派出所 of Wancheng Public Security Bureau in Nanyang City, Henan Province has accepted the case.

In response to this, Senior Partner Zhao Liangshan from Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm believes that Expansion Mall is suspected of fraud. According to Article 266 of the Criminal Law, if the amount of fraud is relatively large, it will be punished as fraud and could lead to a fixed-term imprisonment of up to three years or even less, with or without concurrent fine depending on the circumstances and severity of the crime. If the amount is particularly huge or there are other particularly serious circumstances, it may be punished with fixed-term imprisonment exceeding ten years or even life imprisonment with fines or confiscation of property. Furthermore, according to the “Explanation of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Some Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Fraud,” if the amount of fraud is valued at between 3000 yuan and over one million yuan (depending on the specific region), it should be recognized as “relatively large amount,” “huge amount,” or “particularly huge amount” under Article 266 of the Criminal Law respectively for judicial decision making on conviction and sentencing accordingly based on the actual circumstances of each case as determined by public security departments involved in fraud investigations so ultimately criminal liability will be judged based on recognized amounts involved in fraud by law enforcement agencies investigation results..