Mainland, Taiwan police crack telecom fraud gang

The Chinese mainland and Taiwan police, in joint efforts, have cracked a major telecom fraud case targeting Taiwan residents, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced on Tuesday. Under the command of the MPS, police departments from the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, assisted by Taiwanese police, on July 26 raided 33 dens, capturing 260 suspects, including 26 from Taiwan. The mainland police have transferred the evidence and 26 suspects who are Taiwan natives to police authorities of the island. According to the MPS, the telecom fraudsters phoned customers of online shopping websites, after illegally obtaining their personal information, pretending to be website staff. They told online shoppers that their lump-sum payment had been shifted to installments due to bank system errors, and lured them to transfer payment into the gang's bank accounts by saying shoppers could avoid paying extra transaction fees to the bank in doing so. The case was reported by Taiwan police authorities to the mainland on April 26, as such a new type of telecom fraud had already caused economic losses to many residents of the island. Police from the mainland and Taiwan have busted several cross-Strait telecom fraud gangs in the past three years, capturing more than 2,500 suspects, according to the MPS