Group caught after making 1 billion yuan

A group of 22 suspects, accused of illegally cashing in on more than 1 billion yuan ($158 million) from credit card companies after giving cash advances to customers, was caught last week after authorities carried out a two-month investigation on the case, local police said Thursday.

Led by an unidentified couple, the 22 people involved in the crimes were split into three teams, which were based in Shanghai, as well as Jiangsu and Fujian provinces.

The team in Jiangsu was responsible for searching for people with bad credit, who were desperate for cash. They would then charge the customer the amount he or she wanted on a registered POS machine - using a platform to complete the transaction. The platform was set up by the team in Fujian.

Once the transaction went through, the team would get a cut of the cash given to the customer. The amount taken from the credit card would later be paid back to the team in Shanghai by the credit card companies.

It was unclear Thursday how long the team had been getting away with the scheme.

Local police from the three locations cooperated to separately bust the teams at the same time on March 1, when a total of 150 credit cards, and 13 POS machines and computers were confiscated. The case remains under investigation.