Intervention helps cut rise in phone swindles

By Dong Hui  |   2008-12-30  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

REPORTS of telephone swindles were down 13.8 percent this month compared with November, city police said yesterday. This type of crime had previously been rising rapidly since September.

Dozens of local residents, including foreigners, were persuaded to transfer money into the accounts of scam artists, who pretended to be police, tax and banking officials or telecommunications staff.

Individual losses ranged from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of yuan. Officials said they prevented 159 locals from transferring a total of 3.81 million yuan (US$557,000) into the hands of swindlers since November 12.

A local resident surnamed Tang, 80, was among those who were almost taken in. A con artist pretending to work for a telecom company told Tang he had an outstanding 1,680 yuan telephone bill and was suspected of laundering money by the police.

"I then received a second call from a 'police officer' who said it was also possible my bank account had a security problem," Tang said.

Tang was stopped in an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on Nanjing Road W. just as he was about to transfer 50,000 yuan to the swindler.

"In most cases, the suspects we caught were people who run errands for a big gang," said Hua Wei from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

He said the people who were behind the scam were often based outside the city, which made catching the gangs difficult. Officers said it was hard to retrieve money stolen in this way.

"When swindlers got the transferred money, they soon spread it around dozens of accounts. Then cash is withdrawn at dozens of ATMs," Hua said.

"From October to November, victims in these scams lost about 20 million yuan."