Cops nab 21 suspected scammers

Shanghai and overseas police have arrested 21 suspects in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for running a telephone scam that cost one woman 20 million yuan ($3.29 million), local police announced Thursday.

Police brought 11 of the suspects, all from the Chinese mainland, back to Shanghai early Thursday, according to a statement from the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau. The other 10 suspects were handed over to Taiwan police in Cambodia Wednesday.

Shanghai police began to investigate the case after a woman reported on October 28 that she had been duped into transferring the money to a bank account controlled by a gang of con artists.

Police said that the gang would send potential targets text messages that said identity thieves had used their personal information to run up a large amount of phone charges. When targets called the number accompanying the message, they would be transferred to gang members posing as police or prosecutors. The gang members would urge the targets to transfer their savings to a "safe bank account" to avoid losing more money to the identity thieves.

After the target completed the transfer, other members of the gang would immediately transfer the money into a network of more than 2,000 bank accounts under their control, police said.

After receiving the woman's report, Shanghai police traced the call she made to a number in Cambodia. Officers arrived at Phnom Penh on November 19 and sought help from local police. They tracked the gang to a house where they made their phone calls.

Shanghai and Cambodian police arrested the gang members around 10 am on December 9. They also copied data from the suspects' computers to use as evidence.

Police also arrested seven suspects in Shanghai who were in charge of setting up the bank accounts used by the gang.

The gang's leader resides in Taiwan, where another facet of the gang was responsible for withdrawing and laundering the stolen money, police said.

Police on the Chinese mainland were still working on tracking down the stolen money.