Several prosecuted for defrauding Yangpu mall

Deal hunters who illegally used an app to obtain virtual phone numbers to defraud mall points for free parking were prosecuted and punished, said Yangpu District's People's Procuratorate today.

A consumer app developed by a shopping mall in Yangpu District provides discounts for newly registered users. Each new user can receive 500 points for free, which can be used to cover one hour of parking. If users park for more than one hour, they will be charged 10 yuan (US$1.55) per hour.

A code-receiving app can help users register groups of virtual mobile phone numbers and obtain verification codes. After obtaining the verification code, people can use it to register a new account on the mall's app to get free points. Each verification code costs them 0.1 to 0.2 yuan.

More than 100 people working in the mall's office were found using the app to swindle parking fees, leading to losses of more than 370,000 yuan in 2020.

Most of the suspects are from the same company, said the procurators.

Nine people in eight relevant cases were investigated and prosecuted for fraud by the procuratorate. Among them, four have been convicted of fraud by Yangpu District's People's Court, according to the procurators.

A man surnamed Shi, a master candidate who developed the code-receiving app "Smart Code" for providing users with virtual mobile numbers and verification codes, was also sentenced to jail for six months and fined 10,000 yuan since he knowingly helped others commit crimes with information technology.