Fraud cases on rise in Changning District

The Changning District procuratorate investigated 654 frauds and arrested 1,314 people from 2018 to last year, with 1,122 people in 565 cases prosecuted. 

The number of cases and people involved are on the rise, a white book by the district procuratorate revealed on Monday.

It said the incidence of fraud in telecommunication network continues to be high, and its proportion of all the fraud cases is increasing. Compared with 2018, the number of such cases investigated in 2019 and 2020 had doubled, and the number of suspects involved was also increasing. In 2019, telecom scammers accounted for half of all fraudsters.

Downstream crimes play an increasingly important role in assisting telecom scam in recent years, it said. In order to hide the stolen money, criminals bought a large number of bank cards, U discs and mobile phone cards, and transferred the money by using other people’s bank accounts.

Between November 2019 and the end of last year, a total of 135 cases and 190 people involved in crime that helped telecom scams were investigated, with 131 people in over 82 cases prosecuted.

Criminals are well-organized and getting younger, the white book said. 

To maximize profits, most criminal gangs set up companies to appear to be more professional. Most of the criminals are young and highly educated.

More than 50 percent are college students or graduates aged between 21 and 30.

The amount of money involved in fraud is also increasing, and average sentences are in excess of two years and six months, compared with the national average of 18 months, the procuratorate said. 

The proportion of criminals sentenced to more than five years in prison reached 11.2 percent in 2018, 23 percent in 2019 and 15.4 percent last year, according to the white book.