129 telefraud suspects sent to mainland

Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun vows to fight the crime from its source

Fraud suspects who were captured in Armenia are escorted by police officers off a plane at the Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Sept 2. [Qian Wenpan/China Daily]

Seventy-eight Taiwan residents and 51 mainlanders suspected of involvement in telephone fraud were repatriated to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, from the Republic of Armenia earlier this month, police said on Thursday.

It is the largest number of Taiwan suspects involved in phone fraud to be repatriated to the mainland in a single case, said Liang Ruiguo, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Guangdong provincial Department of Public Security.

"After health checks, the Taiwan suspects were put in the Guangzhou No 1 and No 3 detention houses for further investigation. Most of them admitted to committing phone fraud during questioning," Liang told a news conference on Thursday.

Officials from Armenia immediately informed mainland police when they found that many Chinese people had rented luxury villas but never opened the windows after they entered the country.

The Armenian police detained 129 suspects after busting six dens in the capital Yerevan on Aug 20, after they were told by their mainland counterparts that the suspects might be involved in fraud.

Three hundred police officers from Guangzhou were sent to Armenia on Aug 26 to help investigate the case.

The gang members passed themselves off as law enforcement personnel, and had defrauded mainland residents in 13 provinces of more than 7 million yuan ($1.1 million) since June, officials said.

Zhu Weijia, a senior anti-fraud officer from the Ministry of Public Security, said many new internet technologies have been used by fraud suspects, which adds to the difficulties for police.

"But more concrete and effective measures are being introduced to crack down on the crime," Zhu said.

The crackdown in Armenia was launched after many mainland people, including students, committed suicide after being defrauded.

On Aug 29, Cai Shuyan, 19, was found dead in Huilai county of Guangdong. Cai committed suicide after she was defrauded of more than 10,000 yuan that her mother gave her to pay tuition fees.

Cai had received an admission offer from Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Language and Arts in August.

Similar cases had been reported in the previous month.

Police across Guangdong have detained 5,165 phone fraud suspects after cracking 4,850 cases in the first eight months of this year.

Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun has promised to introduce more measures to fight fraud.

"We cannot allow a large number of residents to be defrauded, again and again, of tuition fees, pensions or money for medical bills," Guo told a work conference on fraud in Shanghai on Tuesday.

He urged government departments to try to prevent and fight the crime from its source.