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Call from bank? It may be a scam

By Wang Hongyi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-30 07:36

If you receive a phone call from the "telecommunications department", "the bank" or even "the police" telling you that your bank account has been hacked and you should transfer all your money to a safer account, beware - it is just another way for fraudsters to rob you of all your hard earned money.

Between September and November, Shanghai's police received reports of more than 500 such telephone frauds, which duped various unassuming residents of over 20 million yuan ($2.9 million).

A woman surnamed Xu had no idea she'd be left penniless when she received a phone call from a man claiming to be from the "China Construction Bank" in September, saying someone had gained her personal information and was likely to withdraw money from her account.

The swindler convinced Xu to transfer all her life savings to a "safer account", which he had procured for her.

Within minutes, Xu transferred 845,700 yuan to the swindler's account, making it the biggest individual loss this year, a police official said. As soon as the transaction was complete, the account, obtained on a fake ID, was closed and the money gone, he said.

In another case, a woman surnamed Wang received a call from a person claiming to be from the "telecommunication department", saying she had run up a huge bill for making international calls.

As Wang tried desperately to explain she had never made any international calls, she was told she had probably fallen victim to a fraud and the phone line was "transferred to the police".

The "police official" then told Wang someone had stolen her identification information to open an account for money laundering. Like Xu, she was told to transfer her money to a "safer account".

Wang lost 130,000 yuan with that transaction.

In December alone, the local police have come across 159 cases of telephone scams involving more than 3.8 million yuan.

The local public security department has called on all residents to stay alert.

"With the Spring Festival approaching, the number of financial fraud cases has increased," Hua Wei, a spokesman of Shanghai public security bureau said. "Most of the victims are middle-aged and elderly," he added.

Police said fraudsters often make calls to fixed lines, and their caller-display numbers begin with the numbers "00196", "0000" and "0193", which resemble those of tax authorities, telecoms companies, and public security organizations.

Hua warned that people "should not give out any personal information or their bank account details to any stranger, and certainly not over the phone".