Phone fraud still rampant in China despite massive crackdown
Recent tragic cases in which students and lecturers have been swindled out of their savings prompts public security minister Guo Shengkun to label the crime a ‘major public hazard’
Recent telephone scams that targeted university students and teachers, resulting in some taking their own lives after being cheated, have put the mainland’s loose regulation of the telecoms industry and easy illegal access to personal information in the spotlight.
Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun has ordered an intensified crackdown on telecoms fraud scams and told the various departments involved to cooperate more closely to curb the high incidence of this type of crime.
The minister said that while many fraud rings based at both home and abroad had been raided in the past year, the crime was still rampant and had become a major public hazard.
Guo made the remarks while inspecting Shanghai’s anti-telecoms fraud website that uses resources from the police, banks and telecoms firms to mitigate phone scams. Since it was set up in March, the platform has frozen a combined 79 million yuan (HK$92 million) in transfers and prevented about 35,000 people from becoming victims.