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Opinion | Scammers seek to exploit Yaan disaster in phone con
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With the speed rescuers have reached out to the Sichuan earthquake victims, con artists have seized the opportunity to exploit the outpouring of grief and make extra cash.
"Please share this message. A girl named Xu Min, 21 years old, is asked to hurry back to Shuicheng county hospital in Yaan," one text message read. "Her mother is severely wounded, wants to see her one last time."
Recipients of the message wanting to help were directed to a hotline that would charge them exorbitant fees. A report of the scam by the China News Service did not say how much the swindlers would make off every well-meaning caller.
Police in Jiangning, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, said that given Shuicheng is not in Sichuan province, but Guizhou, the text-message scam was not very sophisticated.
The same phone number has appeared in other fraudulent text messages related to earthquake relief efforts. One pretended to be the Chinese Red Cross, which is struggling to deal with its own reputational problems after the Guo Meimei scandal last year.
“Mum, Dad, I've been sent to help in the earthquake rescue efforts, this is a great opportunity," one text message read. "Please transfer 5,000 yuan [HK$6,200] to my bank account."
Patrick Boehler has published on China and Southeast Asia in four languages for publications in the US, Europe and Asia. After stints with Austria's ministries of defence and foreign affairs in Vienna and Beijing, he began his reporting career in Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian online news portal Malaysiakini and, later, The Irrawaddy Magazine, a Myanmar exile publication in Thailand. He holds a doctorate in political science and has taught journalism at the University of Hong Kong.
Follow him on Twitter: @mrbaopanrui
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