Job fraud tops aviation criminal caseload at Beijing Shunyi court

A large majority of aviation cases heard by Beijing's Shunyi district, home to Beijing Capital International Airport and hundreds of aviation companies, involved fraud by criminals who tricked people by pretending they could help them obtain jobs, the court said on Monday.

The district court dealt with 23 criminal aviation cases from 2010 to 2015, involving more than 150 people and losses of 7.15 million yuan ($1.1 million), said a court report issued on Monday.

In more than 70 percent of the cases over the past five years, criminals pretended to work for aviation companies and sought money from others in exchange for jobs, including security staff at the airport and counter officials, the report said.

The court cited victim trust and a lack of supervision at the aviation companies among the contributors to the fraud.

"Some victims thought aviation-related jobs could be more profitable and also represent high social status, so they relaxed their vigilance," the court said. It urged job seekers to look for such employment on aviation companies' official websites.

In one case, Wang Xiaoming cheated job seekers by pretending his sister was vice president of an aviation company and could provide them work. Wang obtained more than 470,000 yuan in this way from September 2009 to July 2012, the court said. In fact, Wang's sister was the company's manager responsible for service training, it said. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud and fined 277,000 yuan.

About 83 percent of criminals in these cases used the Internet to cheat others, while about 5 percent defrauded relatives or friends, it said.