Telecom fraud cases fall for ninth month

The rising trend of telecom fraud in recent years has been effectively curbed, but an intensified crackdown will remain along with comprehensive governance and prevention, authorities said on April 14.

The number of registered fraud cases has decreased for nine consecutive months. Police nationwide have resolved 394,000 such cases, and arrested 634,000 suspects, up 28.5 percent and 76.6 percent yearon-year, respectively, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

The ministry has worked with other judicial and administrative departments to target all aspects of fraud crimes, including people who leave the country to commit crimes and who use phone cards and bank cards to carry out fraud activities, said Du Hangwei, vice-minister of public security.

Authorities helped 61.7 million people avoid being deceived by potential telecom fraud attempts during the past year. They also intensified the countermeasures and established a rapid and dynamic mechanism that blocked 1.95 billion fraudulent calls, 2.14 billion text messages, 2.1 million fraudulent domain names and websites, and stopped 329 billion yuan ($51.6 billion) in payments that may have involved fraud.