A Shanghai intermediate court published a typical case on Aug. 18 clarifying when traffic-diversion operators in virtual-currency telecom fraud schemes can be treated as fraud accomplices rather than offenders who only illegally use information networks. From February 2022 to April 2023, three defendants sought profit by using virtual phone software (internet-based calling tools) to direct victims into scam chat groups, helping an overseas fraud organization cheat 30 people out of more than 2.34 million yuan and route funds into suspects' trading accounts through virtual currency (digital tokens used for transfer and settlement). The Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court said the key questions are whether there was clear coordination of criminal intent with upstream fraud groups and a stable division of labor, and that courts should also weigh the defendant's role in the chain, organizational control, links to other offenders, profit method and abnormal conduct, while distinguishing such acts from ordinary network services that do not amount to fraud collusion.