China arrests 62 people in biggest telecom fraud

BEIJING: In its biggest telecom fraud case, China has arrested 62 people including 10 Taiwanese suspected of defrauding a construction firm of over $17 million.

They are suspected of defrauding 117 million yuan (about $17.99 million) from the construction bureau of an economic development zone in Duyun City in Guizhou Province, police said.

The company reported the loss of the money from its bank account to police on December 29 last year.

The firm's finance supervisor, surnamed Yang, was contacted by several people claiming to be police officers, bank staff and procurators, saying the account Yang managed needed reviewing and directing Yang to download software from a website so they could access the bureau's account, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Police said the fraud was masterminded by Taiwanese who recruited people from the Chinese mainland to make fraudulent phone calls from Uganda.

China in recent weeks has come under sharp criticism from Taiwan and human rights organisation for deporting 46 Taiwanese from Kenya accusing them of taking part in the telecom scam and defrauding Chinese of millions of dollars through extortions.

China's public security ministry said it believed the scamsters were operating mostly out of South East Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands.

In addition to Kenya case, there were also recent arrests in Malaysia.

They were deported to China not to Taiwan despite court in Kenya having acquitted them.

The officials claimed to have arrested 7,700 telecom fraud suspects, including 4,600 Taiwanese, in South East Asia in the past seven years since they signed a formal agreement with Taiwan to jointly tackle crime.