China Cracks Down on Telecoms Fraud

Per new sentencing guidelines, telecoms fraudsters could receive life imprisonment if found guilty of stealing more than CNY50,000 (USD7,200), reports China Radio International. Even scams worth as little as CNY3,000 yuan (USD430) could lead to three-year prison sentences.

The new rules were jointly issued by China’s Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (the highest ranking prosecution agency in China) and the Ministry of Public Security. They are a response to a rising tide of fraud, which is partly being blamed on scammers in Taiwan and South East Asia. Chinese police have accused foreign criminals of calling victims on the Chinese mainland and pretending to be Chinese law enforcement officers in order to extort money from them.

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) recently reported that 93,000 cases of telecom and Internet fraud had been brought between January and November of 2016, resulting in penalties for 52,000 offenders in total.

Rising telecoms and online fraud has led to coverage of the issue on Chinese television. For example, last week Chinese Central TV covered the topic by interviewing Du Fang, Deputy Director of the Social Science Department at the People’s Public Security University of China (pictured above). She emphasized that fraud is an organized criminal enterprise and that greater international cooperation is needed to counter it. You can watch the interview, which was conducted in English, by clicking this link (opens in a new window).

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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