26 detained for trafficking personal information in China

NANJING - Police in East China's Jiangsu province have detained 26 suspects involved in profiteering from leaking and selling over 50,000 pieces of bank card information.

In June 2019, police in Huaiyin district in the city of Huai'an received a report claiming that individuals had publicly sold bank card-related information through QQ and other instant messaging tools online.

Police soon launched an investigation and detained the suspects. Between July and December 2019, over 40 police officers were dispatched in an operation to 12 cities in nine provinces including Sichuan, Shaanxi, Fujian, Hunan, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

A total of 26 suspects were arrested, who were suspected of being involved in illegally trading more than 50,000 pieces of personal information worth over 21 million yuan (about $2.95 million).

The suspects have been handed over to the local procuratorial organ.