Ride-hailing company defrauded
A ride-hailing company based in Shanghai has lost at least 800,000 yuan (US$120,000) to criminals who registered bogus accounts on its website, police said on Monday.
Four suspects have been arrested for allegedly defrauding the company, which police declined to name.
Police told Shanghai Daily that a key suspect, a man surnamed Tong, is a manager in charge of operations at a company which works in cooperation with the ride-hailing firm.
The company offered 50 yuan of rewards to certain newly registered passengers. Taking advantage of the bonus policy, the suspects created a large number of accounts with non-existent phone numbers. The alleged scammers then transferred this bonus money to bogus driver accounts registered in the names of their friends and family members.
In actuality, no trips happened, although the "drivers" were still able to collect fares from their non-existent passengers.
Photos taken last month during a police raid on the suspects' premises
Police in the Pudong New Area said they started their investigation in February after receiving a report from the defrauded company.
The suspects were said to have already confessed.
