China prosecutes 564 for telecom fraud

BEIJING -- China has prosecuted 564 individuals for telecom fraud in nine cases and convicted another 53 in four cases, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) Thursday.

In the first batch 21 cases handled by the SPP and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), 481 persons were arrested, the SPP said.

The cases involve a huge amount of assets, along with serious social effects, the SPP said.

The cases come in three types: student victims, cross-border fraud and the high-profile cases handled by the MPS.

One case reputedly led to the death of Xu Yuyu, an 18-year-old high school graduate from Linyi City in east China's Shandong Province. Xu was reported to have lost 9,900 yuan ($1,400) meant for university tuition fees to fraudsters. She died of cardiac arrest on Aug. 19.

An unidentified official from the SPP said the progress in the 21 cases have contained the increase in telecom fraud.