S: Hello, everyone. Welcome to CBN Friday Special, I’m Stephanie Li.
R: And I’m ZHANG Ran.
S: Ran, I received a message from the anti-fraud centre of Guangzhou after I accidentally downloaded an app that turned out to be a click farm. Then, I realised that it’s a form of click fraud, where a large group of low-paid workers is hired to click on paid advertising links for the click fraudster, or the click farmer. Obviously, it’s a trap that has caused dozens of similar cases posted on the anti-fraud app.
R: Ouch, frequent telecom network fraud cases have caused huge losses of people. In 2020, property losses in telecom fraud cases amounted to 35.37 billion yuan according to official data. The incidence of telecom fraud is high, especially in some large and medium-sized cities, accounting for half of the total criminal cases.
S: You’re right. Telecom and network fraud has become the dominant crime in China in recent years, and even a global problem. Gangs use tailored scripts based on personal information to commit crimes, and police have discovered more than 50 different categories of telecom frauds, including phoney investments and financial management scams, fake online loans, customer service and so on.
R: And the elderly are particularly susceptible to these scams because they tend to be vulnerable and trusting. With the development of the internet, it’s getting more and more difficult for seniors to identify some new types of fraud. For example, fraudsters use group chats on the social messaging app WeChat to cheat elderly group members in paying a 10-yuan “registration fee”, who promised that they could get 50,000 yuan in return and be able to attend a gathering at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. On the appointed day, crowds of senior citizens thronged the Olympic stadium hoping for a gold rush, only to realise they had been swindled.
S: I read another story about a 68-year-old woman ending up out on the street of Beijing after falling victim to an investment scam. She told the police that someone persuaded her to take out a mortgage on her apartment and invest the money into a “wealth management plan.” But guess what? She lost her home, plus 2 million yuan in debt.
R: Seniors are more likely to believe false advertisements and exaggerated claims. Once they see others speaking highly of the project, they won’t want to miss out. Moreover, when cash-strapped college students try to look for easy money to finance their education or their expensive tastes, they can become easy prey for loan sharks, who entice them with deals that seem to entail no conditions or collateral. I saw on the news the other day that a 19-year-old student went missing, and it was later revealed that she owed several online lenders a total of 340,000 yuan, including interest.
S: This kind of cases shows that university-aged students lack awareness while being too eager to make easy money. And single people can also be the target of fraud gangs in recent years. As there are more than 240 million single people in China, illicit matchmakers are eager to profit from their search for love.
Last December, a Beijing court sentenced six people to prison for squeezing 4 million yuan from dozens of people hoping to find romantic partners through a matchmaking agency. A female client even shelled out nearly 500,000 yuan to find a partner following her divorce. The matchmaking agency targeted single women and men, promising “high-quality” dates for premium fees of up to 100,000 yuan.
R: Right. Telecom frauds, as their name suggests, usually start with a fake phone call, like one pretending to be a police officer and tries to make the victims nervous by saying that they or their family have committed a crime and asks for their personal identification and bank account information. So Stephanie, do you know how telephone scammers get these phone numbers and personal information?
S: Well, I do have some clue. One of China’s largest courier companies, YTO Express, confirmed reports that its employees had sold some 400,000 pieces of customers’ personal information to criminals, who commonly use such data to target people for telecom fraud and other scams. According to the investigation, a few employees at franchisee delivery stations are suspected of colluding with outlaws outside the company.
R: Yes, except for exploiting employees to steal personal information, fraud gangs also recruit people from Sichuan, Hubei and Yunnan provinces to smuggle people overseas through the southwest border to participate in fraudulent activities. Due to the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been difficult for Chinese public security organs to carry out joint crackdowns on fraud abroad. Overseas fraud cases have grown rapidly, and fraud activities targeting Chinese citizens have become increasingly rampant.
S: But China has put all efforts into cracking down these fraud activities, including using technology to fight against them, which regulators described as “an upgraded ‘attack and defence’ war in the cyber world.”
At a press conference held yesterday, the Public Security Ministry said that about 1.95 billion fraud calls, 2.14 billion fraud messages and 2.11 million related websites were blocked in 2021, which prevented financial losses of about 330 billion yuan. China is also drafting new data protection policies on industrial data security and personal information protection, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
R: What’s more, rather than jail time or hefty fines, China’s justice system is employing a new type of punishment for criminals this year: massive inconvenience.
People found guilty of bank card and mobile SIM card-related crimes in the southern Guangdong province over the past month have been barred from making mobile and bank card payments for five years. They will now only be able to use cash. The punishment is tantamount to social exclusion in a country where mobile payments are employed in every area of life. Similar punishments have included bans from public transport, which were mocked by Chinese netizens as “causing a social death.”
S: But it’s always better to prevent the crime in advance than to crack down on it afterward. The Chinese government is calling for active public participation from all walks of life, such as organising anti-fraud campaigns for seniors and distributing popularising-law brochures.
Moreover, China has developed the app "National Anti-fraud Center," which is designed to remind users of suspected fraudulent activities in various forms, including phone calls, text messages, or dubious apps and websites. It also offers a convenient reporting service in case users get involved in suspicious activities in their daily life. Dozens of anti-fraud lectures are also included in the app. Since its launch in mid-March 2021, the app has quickly become one of the most downloaded free apps in Apple’s App Store in China.
R: With China's intensified crackdown on such crimes, the number of newly reported telecom fraud cases has declined for nine consecutive months starting June 2021, official figures unveiled Thursday.
Over the past year, a total of 394,000 criminal cases involving telecom fraud have been investigated nationwide and 634,000 criminal suspects have been arrested, marking a year-on-year increase of 28.5 percent and 76.6 percent respectively.
S: Well that’s good to know that the country is looking out for us by being absolutely hard on telecom and online frauds. As we became increasingly reliant on the internet for remote work and schooling amid the pandemic, it’s also important that we equip ourselves with anti-fraud knowledge and use the anti-fraud app.
R: Right, I should probably do that too. Stephanie, could you show me where I can get the app…
你管好“钱袋子”了吗？你是否也被“专业屠夫”宰过？你能一秒识破“骗局”吗？电信诈骗手段花样百出，真真假假，一时难以辨别。一不小心，下一秒滑落诈骗陷阱的，可能就是你。
据最高法披露数据显示，在2020年，我国电信诈骗案件涉及金额超过300亿元人民币，其中互联网成为电信诈骗的新途径。根据公安部的数据，如今电信诈骗的手段早已经“加速迭代”，分工越发精细，站在旁观者的视角上看，很多骗局听起来都非常“儿戏”，非常容易看破。但是被害者却往往“不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中。”出乎意料的是，受害者主要年龄段成为80后、90后，这些年轻受害者占比近70%。
针对不同的年龄阶层、个人特征，骗子总能够精准打击，“对症下药”。
相比起年轻人，老年人的信息甄别、搜集能力较弱，往往伴随着“羊群行为”陷入诈骗圈套中。2018年4月，有个微信群聊发起公告，向群友承诺只要缴纳10元“注册费”，参加北京鸟巢体育场的一个聚会，就可以赚到5万元。等到约定当天，成群的老年人聚集在奥林匹克体育场，大家原本欢欢喜喜去“淘金”，等到现场才发现自己被骗了。在另一起案件中，68岁老太太被一个投资骗局骗得倾家荡产，沦落街头。她告诉警方，贷款人说服她把房子抵押了，然后把钱投资到一个“财富管理计划”中。老太太不仅失去了房子，还负债200万元。
同样地，在校生也是诈骗团伙的“香饽饽”。为了满足自己高昂的教育或消费需求，“囊中羞涩”的学生们往往会剑走偏锋，寻求高利贷。抓住这一心理后，骗子会以“零贷款负担”作为噱头来吸引他们。1月，19岁女学生失踪。后来警方了解到，包括利息在内，她共欠了几家网上贷款机构34万元。
另外，单身人士也可能成为诈骗团伙的猎物。中国有超过2.4亿单身人士，有的骗子伪装成“媒人”进行高价收费。去年12月，判处有6人因敲诈数十名单身400万元，被北京一家法院判处有期徒刑。潭女士是受害者之一，据她介绍，自离婚后，她在这家婚介机构花了近50万元找对象，机构号称能促成“高质量”约会，但也只是“杀猪盘”罢了，其中有的单项收费高达10万元。
除了多种多样的诈骗花招，诈骗已俨然形成一条完整利益链。
在之前的报道中，某快递公司员工曾向犯罪分子出售约40万份客户个人信息，而犯罪分子通常利用这些数据来针对人们进行电信欺诈和其他骗局。据调查，加盟商派送站的几名员工不法分子勾结，利用员工账号和非法第三方工具窃取订单信息，让不法分子有机可乘。
诈骗团伙除了利用员工窃取个人信息外，还从四川、湖北、云南等地招募人员，通过西南边境将人偷渡到海外，参与诈骗活动。2019年以来，随着新冠肺炎疫情持续蔓延，我国公安机关在境外开展联合打击诈骗行动难度加大。海外欺诈行为增长迅速，针对中国公民的欺诈活动日益猖獗。
除了监禁与巨额罚款，司法系统对罪犯采取了新式打击手段：给犯罪分子的生活带来不便。目前，广东省内因贩卖银行卡和手机SIM卡犯罪团伙，一经抓获，在五年内便无法用手机和银行卡支付，只能采取现金的方式。从公共交通到杂货店购物，从家庭账单，到医疗保健，再到旅游，移动支付被广泛应用于生活的各个领域，这种惩罚无疑是让他们化身社会边缘人，体验到“社会性死亡”是何种滋味。
然而，事前预防总胜于事后打击。中国政府呼吁社会各界积极参与到反诈行动中来，类似于面向老年人的科普讲座、发放普及法律手册等活动已蔚然成风。此外，除了线下活动，国家更是大力推行“国家反诈中心”APP，提醒用户提防各种形式的涉嫌欺诈活动。目前，这款APP 在iOS应用商店的下载列表中跃居榜首。
“数据链”治理也是打击电信网络诈骗犯罪的重要内容。4月14日，国新办发布会上，工业和信息化部表示，将加快出台相关法规，研究制定App收集使用个人信息、车联网、人工智能等重要领域数据安全标准，强化个人信息保护和数据安全监管。
2021年，公安部会同相关部门成功拦截诈骗电话19.5亿次，短信21.4亿条，紧急拦截涉诈资金3291亿元。一年来，全国共破获电信网络诈骗案件39.4万起，抓获犯罪嫌疑人63.4万名，同比分别上升28.5%和76.6%，打击战果创历史新高。
