85 punished for cross-border telecom fraud

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On Thursday, a Beijing court gave sentences to 85 fraudsters in a cross-border telecom fraud case, ranging from 21 months to 15 years in prison.

According to the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, over 70 of the offenders were extradited from Kenya in April 2016, including 44 residents of Taiwan.

The court said the suspects had pretended to work for courier services, health insurance bureaus, police and procuratorate authorities, to falsely tell victims they were suspected of crimes due to leaked personal information, persuading them to transfer money or make others do so from appointed accounts.

The fraudsters pleaded guilty to cheating 185 victims out of more than 29 million yuan (4.3 million US dollars).

Thirty-five of the suspects were accused of carrying out fraudulent activities in Indonesia from June to November in 2014, before traveling to Kenya.

The other 50 suspects allegedly operated in Kenya from June 2015 to April last year.

Police liaison officers stationed in Chinese embassies and consulates have helped arrest and return more than 1,000 criminal suspects back to China by the end of 2016 as part of a program to improve law enforcement cooperation with other countries, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said in September.

According to the MPS, so far China has sent a total of 64 police liaison officers to 31 foreign countries.

They have helped handle 4,460 cross-border cases, and helped Chinese police crack a series of telecom fraud cases in Thailand and the Philippines.

(With inputs form AFP)

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