Chinese telecom fraud gang cracked down

BEIJING - Chinese police have recently busted a telecom fraud gang, arresting 86 suspects and solving over 200 criminal cases, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Friday.

Under the command of the MPS, police departments from the provinces of Fujian, Shaanxi and Anhui on September 27th destroyed 17 dens, capturing Liu Xinglin, the principal suspect of the gang, which is thought to have swindled over 20 million yuan (3.16 million US dollars).

Earlier investigations found over 80 suspects of the telecom fraud gang, which had established dens in 17 areas across the country.

Liu was listed as wanted by Taiwanese police authorities for his criminal activity involving fraud. After coming to the mainland with other individuals in 2003, he and others established the telecom fraud gang.

Experts said telecom fraudsters can easily succeed due to loopholes in supervision in telecom and banking sectors, so that fraudsters can pretend to be officials from governments and law enforcement departments with network technology.

In the meantime, they can easily draw cash from people's online bank accounts abroad.

The MPS in recent years has busted a series of cross-border telecom fraud cases, destroying 350 dens, capturing 3,800 suspects and uncovering over 10,000 cases of telecom fraud crimes.

The ministry said it will further strengthen its crackdown on telecom fraud crimes and contain rise in the number of such cases.