Society

Phone fraud crackdown tackles growing menace

By Zhang Yan and Yang Wanli (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-22 08:10

The immigration department of Cambodia holds suspects in a telecom fraud in Phnom Penh, the capital. They are among the 598 people who were arrested in the scam after an investigation led by police from the Chinese mainland and in Taiwan. [Provided to China Daily]

Women at risk

Most victims in telecom frauds are senior women or housewives. Fraud calls are generally made on weekdays from 10 am to 2 pm, when the victims are at home alone.

Haidian district court in Beijing heard a criminal case in early April involving a resident who was cheated out of more than 10 million yuan (about $1.5 million) by telecom fraud in October 2009.

The victim, whose surname is Zhang, said she received a call on Oct 22, 2009, saying that her landline phone account was overdue 2,600 yuan. The caller rerouted the call to "police in Huairou district" for Zhang. She said the "police" asked for her personal information and told her that her bank account had been involved in a fraud case.

"Several days later, a man who claimed to be the chief justice of Huairou district asked me to transfer my money into a new account for safety concerns," she said.

"After I followed his instruction, I lost any contact with him."

A 37-year-old man from Taiwan, Lu Jian-ren, was later held to be responsible for the case. He was sentenced to eight years in jail and fined 8,000 yuan.

In most such cases, crooks usually persuade victims to transfer their money to a new account and they will withdraw the money within 15 minutes, Chen said. The money will soon go to the underground market and is hard to get back, especially in cross-border cases.

Heavy penalties

Suspects who are accused of publishing false information to swindle others - by sending messages or using the Internet, radio, TV, newspapers or magazines - will be charged with fraud and will be subject to heavier penalties, said Hong Daode, a professor in the Criminal Justice College at China University of Political Science and Law.

Such penalties also are levied if someone is held criminally accountable for sending 5,000 or more fraudulent text messages, making 500 or more fraudulent phone calls or using excessive tactics.

Under the Criminal Law, a person convicted of common fraud may be jailed for up to three years. If the amount of money involved is 30,000 to 100,000 yuan, the sentence can range from three to 10 years.

A sentence of 10 years to life is possible if the circumstances of the case are serious, such as the amount of money involved is more than 500,000 yuan, or the fraud results in someone's death or the victim's loss of sanity.

Moreover, people who provide criminals credit cards, mobile phone cards, communication tools and network technology that support or assist in the crimes can be held criminally accountable and charged with fraud, according to the regulations.

Li Jiabao contributed to this report.

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