Public security ministry foils criminal phone gangs in China
Gang members used 3,100 encrypted phones to harass victims
China’s Ministry of Public Security has smashed two criminal phone gangs a joint operation with security departments from 15 cities, Guangzhou Daily has reported.
The authorities arrested 200 suspects who allegedly made more than 1.2 billion harassment calls to people.
The gangs, known online as “Maniac Cloud Calling” and “Beating him to death”, were run by two criminal kingpins. They are accused of blackmail, illegal debt-collection and adopting unlawful, high-pressure sales tactics, the report said.
Gang members had 3,100 encrypted phones and operated online and offline. Using smartphones and laptop software they harassed their victims with multiple repetitive calls. They persisted until people obeyed text messages telling them to pay so the calls would stop, according to the report.
As part of the operation against the gangs the security authorities blocked more than 830,000 related illegal accounts on WeChat that the criminals had used and confiscated servers, laptops and ATM cards.