Suspect caught for defrauding local company
One of the suspects in the case has been caught by police.
A man suspected of being involved in a fraud perpetrated against a local company has been caught, Shanghai police said on Monday.
The company, located in Yangpu District, was cheated into paying about 3 million yuan (US$462,000) to the suspects, but thanks to timely intervention of the police, the money transfer through the bank was intercepted.
The incident happened on May 24.
A woman surnamed Miao who worked in the company's finance department received two emails that morning which were seemingly sent by her boss who is based in another country.
In the emails, Miao was told to join two Internet groups in which people with screen names of her boss, his wife and a company shareholder were discussing business issues.
In the groups, Miao was told to add the name of a company accountant, a woman surnamed Tian. Tian was then asked by the "boss" to transfer 2.87 million yuan to a bank account, which she did.
Meanwhile, the anti-fraud center of Shanghai police detected that company staff were communicating with possible fraudsters. Shortly afterwards, the company received a call from the police who reminded the staff that they may have been contacted by cheats.
Miao and Tian immediately reported the case to Daqiao Police Station while Yangpu police stepped in to intercept the money transfer from going through the bank accounts.
After half an hour, the suspects' account was frozen by police and the transaction halted. However, part of the money had already been transferred to other accounts.
One of the owners of the recipient bank accounts was located in southwest China's Yunnan Province and later caught.
Police said they're still tracking the company's lost money and other suspects.
