Prosecutors say telecom, cyberfraud increasing

Prosecutors nationwide indicted 22,268 people on charges related to internet and other telecom crimes in the first nine months of this year, up by 118.6 percent year-on-year.

Judicial authorities filed 8,257 cases, an increase of 88.6 percent, according to a statement from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s Investigation Department on Sunday that called for more prompt efforts to deal with cyber- and telecom fraud, and for tackling the problem at its root.

The statement urged prosecutors nationwide to better understand the harm of such violations and called for a heavy-hitting approach. It said fighting such crimes requires timely and sufficient work in collecting evidence.

The statement called for better communication with banks, internet and telecom enterprises and administrative authorities to reduce personal information leaks.

Procuratorates should also improve cooperation with foreign countries in evidence collection, the arrest and transfer of suspects, the handover of illicit money and goods, and the exchange of judicial documents.

Chinese procuratorates have been strengthening prevention and control of cybercrime in recent years.

According to the SPP, since 2016, Chinese prosecutors brought charges against 1,568 people in 727 cases of computerrelated crimes, such as hacking.

Between January and September, 710 people in 334 computer crime cases were indicted, an 80.7 percent increase over the same period last year.

This year, seven people were sentenced to prison in Shandong province in a telecom fraud case linked to the death of a teenager. Xu Yuyu, a high school graduate from Linyi, died of cardiac arrest in August 2016 after being defrauded out of 9,900 yuan ($1,497), which she intended to use to pay university tuition fees.