Student dies after losing tuition in phone scam
A high school graduate in Linyi, East China’s Shandong Province, died after she was defrauded of 9,900 yuan ($ 1,488) in university tuition, raising concerns about all- too- common leaks of personal information.
Xu Yuyu, who had recently been admitted to Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, was conned by a fraudlent phone call into sending her 9,900 yuan in university tution to a third party in order to get a scholarship. She died of “cardiac and respiratory arrest” after reporting the case to local police, Qilu Evening News reported.
An officer from a police station in Linyi’s Luozhuang district told the Global Times on Wednesday that they have filed the case and an investigation is underway. But there are no details yet about how Xu’s personal information was leaked.
Xu believed the caller because she had been notified by the local education bureau about the scholarship previously, Qilu Evening News reported.
This is not the first time that newly admitted students have learned that their personal information has been revealed.
A student surnamed Wang who was admitted to Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2015 told the Global Times on Wednesday that three out of four students in her dorm received similar fraudulent texts and calls after they were admitted to the university.
In Xu’s case, the fraud called from a mobile phone number starting with 171, which is believed to have been provided by a virtual telecom server, according to Qilu Evening News.
“These virtual telecom servers don’t require registrants’ real information. So these telecom frauds can easily obtain numbers online, and it is impossible for police to trace these numbers,” Chen Zhonglin, dean of the Law School at Chongqing University, told the Global Times.
Chen said this technological obstacle often makes government departments reluctant to investigate telecom fraud cases thoroughly.
Wang Fu, a lawyer with Beijing Zhenbang Law Firm, told the Global Times that citizens’ personal information can be easily revealed nowadays, contributing to the rampant growth of telecom fraud. Wang also noted that most people don’t take leaks of their personal information seriously unless they suffer economic losses as a result.