Shanghai, Taiwan police bust fraud ring

Police in Shanghai and Taiwan have teamed up to bust a telecom fraud ring that scammed more than 6 million yuan ($960,330) from victims on the Chinese mainland and elsewhere, local police said Monday.

It was the first time that police from Shanghai flew to Taiwan to work jointly on a case. Earlier this month, police arrested 37 suspects from the mainland and Taiwan following a year-long investigation, according to a press release from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. They confiscated 554,000 new Taiwan dollars and froze 680,000 yuan in victims' money.

"There have been more telecom fraud cases where criminals spread their network overseas, which makes it easier for them to avoid the police," said Ye Jianchao, a press officer from the Shanghai police. "So we plan strengthen our cooperation with Taiwan police in dealing with such crimes."

Local police got onto the case after encountering several criminal complaints that pointed to a telecom fraud ring that was operating between Taiwan and the mainland.

In one case, a Shanghai man got bilked out of 2 million yuan by a scammer posing as a police officer. The victim, surnamed Gao, received a phone call from a woman last month, who told him he had unpaid telecom bills. The woman transferred Gao's call to a fake telecom company and a man posing as a police officer from the Hubei Province Public Security Bureau.

The fake officer told Gao that someone had used his identity to launder money and he was wanted by authorities. The phony officer asked Gao to cooperate with the investigation and transfer more than 2 million yuan to a bank account. When Gao realized he had been cheated, he called the real police.

The police found that Gao's money had been transferred through the online banking system and had been withdrawn from several automatic teller machines in three regions in Taiwan.

"We found more than 300 bank accounts used by the ring," Ye told the Global Times.

He added that the local police are still waiting for the suspects to be extradited for further investigation.