Police bring fraud suspects to Shanghai

SIX telecom fraud suspects have been brought to Shanghai from a location overseas, police said yesterday.

The suspects allegedly pretended to be package deliverymen and defrauded Shanghai residents by claiming that their packages were lost.

An investigation started last month when a woman, surnamed Chu, in Jinshan District reported that she had been defrauded.

The scammers first made her believe she had received 7,000 yuan (US$1,064) as compensation for a lost package, according to Chu. They then asked her to return 5,000 yuan after she told them that her package was worth only 2,000 yuan, she said.

In fact, the 7,000 yuan Chu found in her account was money she unknowingly borrowed from a website she had been directed to by the scammers.

“I did have an incoming package, and I was further convinced by their WeChat account, which mentioned successful compensation cases,” she said.

But only after providing the scammers with her bank account details did Chu realize she had been defrauded.

Chu was not the only Shanghai resident who fell victim to the con, and police soon traced the scammers to the border area near southwest China’s Yunnan Province, according to authorities.

Together with Yunnan police, and police in an unnamed foreign country where the suspects were in hiding, the suspects were caught on June 20 and brought to Shanghai on Monday evening.

Shanghai police said they’re looking for victims in other parts of China based on clues from mobile phones and bank cards seized from the suspects. They further say money related to the scam has been frozen in the suspects’ accounts.

Police declined to say which country the suspects were found in.