Fraudsters told victims they had cancer

CHINESE police have detained 132 suspects for allegedly committing more than 2,000 cross-border medical frauds in nationwide raids since April, the Ministry of Public Security has announced.

The suspects belonged to a fraud syndicate initiated by a company named “Silande,” based in the city of Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.

The firm allegedly developed a national fraud network through beauty salons.

To lure victims into the fraud, the salons offered some of their clients free tours to the United States and Thailand and then persuaded them to take what were fake medical examinations. People impersonating doctors then warned the victims they were at a high risk of developing cancer and tricked them into buying expensive “anti-cancer medicines,” which were, in fact, the pigments lycopene and anthocyanin.

“The scheme targeted highincome and healthy clients who did not speak English nor had medical or legal backgrounds,” it said.

The illegal money involved in the cases totaled nearly 1 billion yuan (US$145.7 million), according to the police.

During the raids, police froze about 500 suspicious bank accounts with more than 70 million yuan.