China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) has exposed six cases of telecoms fraud as part of efforts to popularize knowledge of such scams and remind the public to take preventive measures.
In one case, Dai Chunbo, along with 31 associates, published "recruitment information" on the Internet and recruited swindlers to work overseas. The fraudsters, under the guise of the police, procuratorates or courts, tricked victims into transferring money to their accounts, the SPC said in a statement.
The 32 suspects were fined and sentenced to between two and a half years and six years in prison for fraud, it said.
In another case, Ji Xiuyan, together with 13 associates, joined telecoms fraud scams, while living in various villas overseas, causing great economic loss to 48 victims, it said. Each of the suspects was involved in a case of over one million yuan (about 149,958.76 U.S. dollars).
The perpetrators were all sentenced to over five years in prison, and two ring leaders were each sentenced to 12 years in jail, according to the statement.
China has placed a new focus on fighting telecoms fraud. Last week, authorities issued a multi-department circular urging all telecoms service providers to ensure that 100 percent of the country's telephone accounts were registered under real identities by the end of this year, and to suspend all accounts without real-identity registration.
