AN 18-year-old young woman was swindled out of all of the money she had earned by doing part-time summer work by a group who claimed to be prosecutors and police officers from Shanghai on Sept. 6, the Daily Sunshine reported.

    The woman, identified as Xiao’ou, was accepted to a university in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, and planned to leave for Zhaoqing on Friday with her 2,610 yuan (US$390) summer earnings.

    Before she left home, Xiao’ou received a call from a person who said he was a deliveryman from SF Express. The man told her that a parcel with her name on it had been confiscated by police as it contained three forged ID cards.

    The deliveryman gave her the parcel number, with which Xiao’ou found that the information reported was the same as her own ID card.

    She denied ordering any parcel, and the man responded that her information might have been leaked. The man transferred the call to a supposed police officer in Shanghai.

    According to Xiao’ou, the man on the other end of the phone said he was a police officer from Chongming Police Station in Shanghai surnamed Song. The man spent one hour on the phone explaining to Xiao’ou that she might have become a victim in a crime and asked the young woman to verify her identity by calling a phone validating number.

    By making the call, Xiao’ou learned the man was indeed a police officer surnamed Song from the Shanghai police station, which made her believe whatever the man told her.

    Xiao’ou told the Daily that she also heard other people around the phone talking about the case. Song later gave the phone to a woman who he said was director of the public security bureau.

    The “director” talked with Xiao’ou in serious voice and said that they had tracked down a bank account that belonged to Xiao’ou and had been used for money laundering.

    The “director” told Xiao’ou to verify the authenticity of the case on a website. When logging onto the website, Xiao’ou found it appeared to be the website of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China. When entering a series of numbers provided by Wang, Xiao’ou found her personal information and the content of the case on the website.

    Xiao’ou was eager to rid herself of the suspicion of being a criminal and agreed to follow the instruction of the “police officers.”

    Xiao’ou went to a nearby ATM as instructed and entered an English interface on the ATM. All of her savings were stolen after she input several series of numbers as told on the phone.

    It was then Xiao’ou realized she had been swindled.

    When she tried to call back, the number had been cancelled and all the other numbers calling from Shanghai have also been disconnected since then.

    In the afternoon, the young woman reported the case to Shangtang Police Station in Longhua New Area and the police bureau filed the case for investigation. (Zhang Qian)

    (In-depth of phone fraud on P8.)