Lonely hearts warned to beware of Internet fraud
-
Together with a local company, Shanghai police stage a light show with 500 drones on the prevention of Internet and telecom fraud on Tuesday evening.
Ti Gong -
Ti Gong -
Ti Gong -
962110 is the number police officers call residents who they suspect to be talking to scammers over the phone.
Ti Gong -
Ti Gong
Shanghai police are warning people to be wary of Internet scams involving online romantic connections.
The financial losses of such victims, the amount of which police declined to reveal, accounted for 16 percent of all losses involving Internet and telecom fraud during the first seven months of this year, more than any other type of scam, according to local law enforcement authorities.
However, scams in which perpetrators try to develop online relationships with their victims were still a minority among the number of cases reported to police during the same period. Yet, the average amount of money lost in each case is quite large, say police.
While telephone and SMS fraud cases in which victims lost money dropped 16 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, in the first seven months, Internet fraud cases in which money loss occurred rose 4.8 percent, police said.
In Putuo District, a man surnamed Zhou reported to police on July 3 that he was duped into giving a woman he met online 1.09 million yuan (US$158,000), supposedly to develop an app. When the app business failed, his "girlfriend" cut off contact and vanished.
Zhou said he met the woman on baihe.com, a dating website.
By tracking the movement of Zhou’s money, police determined the identities and locations of 13 suspects behind the case across five cities. The suspects were rounded up starting July 13 and have allegedly confessed.
Shanghai police say they have saved 244 million yuan in losses from fraud victims by working together with banks since May in a crackdown on Internet and telecom fraud. During this campaign, the number of cases solved and suspects caught have doubled from the same period last year.
