Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    TWO expats and a Hong Kong resident involved in making crank calls in Shenzhen were named by the Shenzhen Consumer Council after their personal information was submitted to the city’s public credit center, according to a press conference held by the council Thursday.

    In partnership with the city’s public security bureau and the public credit center, the council made public the information of four Shenzhen-based companies, including 22 executives and employees of these companies, after they had engaged in malicious telemarketing by using residents’ personal information that they had acquired by illegal means.

    These companies have received administrative punishments from the police, and the information of the involved people has been recorded on file in the city’s personal credit system.

    One of the four companies is a finance company named Zhong An Credit.

    The information disclosed by the council showed that the company’s legal representative and chairman is named Paul Marin Thell, who holds a mainland travel permit for Hong Kong residents.

    Among the company’s three directors on the board, two are expatriates — a U.S. passport holder, Stephen A. Orlins, and a Malaysian passport holder, Lai Kim Leong.

    The council also named the third director Xu Bojia, the company’s supervisor Su Qiyun and its eight employees during the press conference.

    It’s the first time that the council has submitted the information of both the dishonest companies and involved executives and employees to the city’s public credit center.

    “The information will be shared with all of the credit-rating systems run by the center’s members citywide, such as government departments and banks,” said Zhou Zhenwen, the council’s spokesperson. “Those with dishonest records might have trouble getting bank loans, registering companies or even buying plane or train tickets in the future.”

    The city’s public security bureau launched two citywide operations to crack down on telecom scams last year, in which a total of 24 suspects were held under criminal detention and 60 people were put under administrative detention. Over 310,000 illegally sourced pieces of personal information about residents were seized.

    “Putting dishonest companies on file at the city’s public credit center is beneficial to the police in cracking down on telecom scams,” said Ou Ziqi, deputy head of the bureau.

    The council also revealed the Top 10 Annoying Things according to a vote by consumers to show the most unfair treatments or dishonest practices by merchants. Ranking first were crank calls and spam.

    Others included malicious software, online scams, prepaid services, unfair contract clauses and health food marketing campaigns that rip off the elderly.