Chinese draft law vows fight against telecom, online fraud

A draft law on anti-telecom and online fraud has been submitted to the ongoing session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee for the first reading on Tuesday.

The draft proposes real-name registration and login in telecom and Internet service and calls for strengthening punishment against illegal selling, renting, and lending of telecom, Internet of Things, financial and online accounts.

Chinese police have busted 27,000 gangs involved in SIM card or bank card fraud and punished 450,000 suspects during a nationwide campaign since last October.

The State Council should establish a joint mechanism to coordinate the fight against telecom and online fraud, the draft states, urging relevant departments to work closely across multiple fields and regions to effectively prevent such crimes.

The draft law stipulates the responsibilities of different departments, enterprises, and local governments in combating telecom and online fraud. It strengthens the building of a joint work mechanism, which will motivate the whole society to prevent and fight against such crimes, said Peng Xinlin, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Association of Criminal Law.

Public security organs should work with financial institutions and payment service providers to stop victims from making payments to the suspects' accounts, freeze funds related to the fraudulent activities, and retrieve the money, according to the draft law.

The Ministry of Public Security issued 96,000 early warnings on average each day this year, preventing a total of 12.6 million people from falling victim to telecom and online fraud. Also, in 2021, Chinese police have intercepted 1.22 billion fraudulent calls and 1.41 billion fraudulent short messages, averting a collective financial loss of 277 billion yuan (about US$43 billion).

It also urges diplomatic and police authorities to promote international cooperation in combating cross-border telecom and online frauds.

Chinese law enforcement authorities had cracked 262,000 telecom and online fraud cases from January to September and arrested 373,000 suspects in these cases, up 41.1 percent and 116.4 percent year on year, respectively.