2018年CRI Chinese citizens in Australia warned against telecom fraud

Chinese citizens in Australia warned against telecom fraud

An increasing number of Chinese citizens in Australia have fallen victim to a telecom fraud in which phone scammers are impersonating Chinese consulate 1 staff. The fraud has so far caused losses worth about 10 million Australian dollars or 7.5 million US dollars in Sydney alone since last August. China's Consulate General in Sydney and the New South Wales police are urging Chinese citizens to be aware of any fraudulent calls. More details from our Australia correspondent Qi Zhi.

Since August 2017, the Chinese Consulate General in Sydney and Australian police have received reports about Chinese citizens getting phone calls by people claiming to be attached with Chinese diplomatic missions or Chinese police.

During these calls people have been tricked into believing that they are in trouble with Chinese authorities and need to pay money as fines, or in order to slow or stop prosecution 2 against them.

In some cases the fraudsters display the phone numbers of the Chinese embassy or Consulate General in Australia. In other cases people have been transferred to China-based telephone numbers as the fraud is continued by people pretending to be Chinese police.

At a media briefing on Monday, China's Deputy Consul-General in Sydney Tong Xuejun said the fraud is a serious situation.

"Our data shows there've been more than 1000 cases in which people contacted us to report a telecom fraud since August 2017. We have confirmed about 40 cases that caused a loss. The total amount of money involved is about 10 million Australian dollars."

The Vice 3 Consul-General adds that the money lost ranged from 2,000 dollars to 3.5 million in one single case, while half of the victims were Chinese students studying in Australia.

A typical fraud call would see the scammer tell the victims they suspect they are involved in a crime, for example money laundering 4 or embezzlement 5, and to avoid jail or deportation 6 they need to pay a large sum of money for bail 7 or to get a so-called "priority investigation 8" to clear their name. Detective Sergeant 9 David Gates from the New South Wales police is urging Chinese citizens to be wary 10 of such fraudulent calls.

"The New South Wales police would like to let the Chinese people know that the Chinese embassy or the Chinese Consulate General never call Chinese citizens to inform them to renew their passport, and never require them to provide their personal information such as bank account information; they do not ask money to be transferred to bank accounts or involve themselves in Chinese criminal investigations 11."

Roland Winter from the Sydney City Fraud Unit under the NSW police warns people to never disclose any personal data to anyone who calls you up out of the blue.

"The most important thing - and this message should be sent out to everyone - is do not send any money, because if you do, you will not get any money back. It's very difficult to retrieve 12 any money that you have sent to an account that may be offshore 13 and it's very difficult to identify where those funds were sent to."

The fraudsters are believed to be operating from both Australia and China, and Australian police are currently working with their Chinese counterparts in an ongoing 14 investigation.

Similar cases have also been reported in countries like the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, where the scammers are targeting mostly new immigrants and students from China.

For CRI, this is Qi Zhi, reporting from Sydney, Australia.