Judges to intensify action against scams aimed at defrauding elderly

Beijing judges have pledged to intensify efforts to fight fraud, especially involving the elderly, after rapid growth in such cases over the past five years.

Data provided by the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court last week showed that it heard 532 fraud cases from January 2017 to January this year, 40 of which targeted senior citizens.

Tan Jinsong, vice-president of the court, said that the number of elderly fraud victims has been rising since 2019, and the amount of money lost has also increased.

"Between 2017 and 2018, the amount that seniors lost because of fraud was less than 1 million yuan ($157,000), but in the last three years, we've seen more cases in which old people were cheated out of more than 5 million yuan," he said.

According to China's seventh population census, people over the age of 60 represented over 18 percent of the population by the end of last year, "meaning that we've become a graying society and will face more problems related to the elderly", Tan said.

In addition to cheating the elderly by common methods such as luring them into buying fake healthcare products or enticing them to have improper or unnecessary medical checks, "the fraud has also been frequently discovered in areas such as investment, finance and art", he added.

In one case, a group of eight defendants from the same company made random calls seeking elderly art collectors, and then invited those interested to an auction, claiming that their collection of stamps and souvenir badges were popular in the market and would fetch a high price, according to Jiang Wei, a judge from the court.

"The scammers talked with elderly visitors to the 'auction house' for a while to learn their financial situation, and later arbitrarily made up the prices of the collections," he said. "Finally, the fraudsters earned money by charging the collectors service fees."

Jiang said the gang cheated more than 120 old people out of more than 4 million yuan from 2015 to March 2019, adding that the eight defendants were given sentences ranging from seven to 13 years in prison in addition to fines.

Other senior citizens, who were not knowledgeable about collections, were also tricked into buying so-called antiques or artworks after they blindly trusted the scammers, who said that the collections would bring them a high return, he added.

He suggested old people inspect the business licenses of auction institutes before buying or selling anything, and to remain wary when "high returns" are mentioned.

Shao Xuesong, head of a community committee in the capital's Fangshan district, welcomed the pledge from the judges, adding that elderly residents will be able to learn from the cases.

Calling for judges to explain legal matters and financial risks to the elderly by working with communities, she said that enhancing prevention awareness will help old people remain alert when encountering similar scams.