Cops offer primer on telecom scams

Shanghai police launched a citywide campaign Sunday to educate residents about telecom fraud, in an effort to prevent them from falling prey to scammers.

Police said they have helped prevent more than 1,200 cases of telecom fraud this year, saving residents more than 60 million yuan ($9.77 million).

There are several simple rules residents can follow to protect themselves, said Wei Jian, an expert in telecom fraud from the police's criminal division. One is to check the phone number to see if the call came from overseas.

"If you receive a call and see 00 or +86 in front of the number, the call came from overseas," Wei told the Global Times. "Although the rest of the phone number might be the same as the one from local police or the courts, the call is actually from a criminal ring working from abroad."

It is common for scammers to pose as police officers, judges or prosecutors by spoofing official phone numbers. They usually try to bully victims into transferring money to their bank accounts.

Police have few ways to stop criminals from spoofing official numbers because many fraud rings can use special software to make it look as if a call came from a police station or other official agency, Wei said. Furthermore, it is impossible for the telecom companies to screen all overseas calls.

Residents should also beware of recorded calls or calls claiming they have fallen victim to identity theft. "Scammers typically use these tricks to get their targets to hand over money," Wei said.

More and more, scammers are also targeting companies.

The Songjiang district police arrested two suspects, surnamed Yuan and Liu, on charges that they created a website mimicking the popular delivery service CNEX Express to fool victims into paying them, rather than the actual company, to ship their packages.

The phony website allowed the scammers to collect order and payment information from their victims. After collecting payment, the scammers would forward the information to other delivery companies, who would then charge the package recipients the delivery fee.

Yuan and Liu primarily targeted companies. Before they were caught, they took about 350,000 yuan in orders from six companies.