San Francisco launches awareness campaign to fight phone call scams

SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. western resort city of San Francisco Friday launched an awareness campaign against growing fraudulent phone call scams targeting Chinese community in the city.

"In this past year, we know in New York State that there have been over 21 victims who have been defrauded of over two and a half million (U.S.) dollars," said Assemblyman David Chiu, California State Assembly at a press conference in Chinadown in the city.

Those scammers were particularly targeting senior citizens to cheat them for quick profit.

"Of a scam of the type that has just hit our Chinese Community here in the Bay Area, and in this past week I was surprised to the fact that there were thousands of residents here in San Francisco and in the Chinese Community who are receiving such fraudulent voicemails," Chiu said.

These fraudulent phone calls were made by criminals who are trying to steal money from the public, he said.

There was an increasing number of reports in recent days that people received phone calls in the name of the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, which tried to cheat the receivers into disclosing their personal ID, address and bank information.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed told the audience that a public awareness campaign is needed to combat the scams, saying she will work with the police authorities to protect everyone in the community.

"Criminals who prey on our community will not be tolerated in our community and will be prosecuted," she said.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon is very much committed to bringing criminals accountable for these kinds of scams to justice, Breed said, adding that the law enforcing agency will increase police foot patrols to make every member of the community feel safe.

Chinese Deputy Consul General in San Francisco Ren Faqiang said at the press conference that the Chinese Consulate General will not, via phone, ask overseas Chinese to handle cases in China or renew an expired passport or apply for a new one, or demand the information of their bank card or account.

While urging the pubic to remain on high alert against such fraudulent calls, Ren said the Consulate General has asked the U.S. police authorities to investigate these phone scams and bring those criminals to justice.

Senior Inspector Jason Collom of San Francisco District Attorneys Office told Xinhua that in San Francisco "unfortunately we haven't had a victim who has reported the crime on police report that I've seen yet."

Therefore, it is not easy at this time to have an exact number of victims or the total financial losses from the fraudulent scams in San Francisco, he said.

He urged the public to come forward if there are victims or attempted victims and to report the issue to police. Enditem