East China city steps up fight against telecom fraud

HANGZHOU, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Wenzhou City in east China's Zhejiang Province has stepped up its fight against telecom and internet fraud this year and frozen over 100 million yuan (15 million U.S. dollars) involved in these crimes, data from a local anti-fraud center showed Thursday.

The biggest amount of money frozen in a single case was 5.8 million euros. More than 37 million yuan has been returned to victims, the center added.

More than 10,600 telecom and internet fraud cases have been reported in Wenzhou this year, down 25.2 percent from a year ago. The amount of money involved also fell 25.5 percent to 168 million yuan.

Telecom fraud is a growing crime in China. Swindlers often trick victims into transferring money to their accounts via ATM, or cheat them out of money by posing as police officers or officials. In some cases, money that has been transferred can be frozen if victims call the police in time.

China has been strengthening its forces for combating telecom and internet fraud in recent years. A total of 32 provincial anti-fraud centers and 206 city-level anti-fraud centers had been established as of May this year, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Last year, Chinese police solved 83,000 cases of telecom and Internet fraud, up 49.6 percent year on year. Enditem