A SECOND-YEAR student at Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology, Liang, spent a day restless and uneasy after receiving a phone call Sunday.

The recorded phone call claimed to be from China Unicom and said that her phone service would be suspended if Liang didn’t follow certain instructions. Out of curiosity, Liang followed the instructions and was greeted by a man who claimed to be with China Unicom’s customer service department. After a short inquiry, the man said that a phone card with the name of Liang might have been involved in a scam. Even though Liang only had one phone card, the man explained that another person might have used her ID to apply for a phone card and offered to pass her along to the “public security bureau” so Liang could make an inquiry regarding her phone service.

After a short inquiry, the operator of the “public security bureau” told Liang that she might have been involved in a financial scam and asked if she had tied her bankcard to her Alipay account, and whether she had bought shares or fund products. Liang felt nervous as she felt she was “being investigated by police for crimes.”

Considering Liang’s sincerity, the operator said that they could prioritize her case by passing it over to a police officer surnamed Gao with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau’s criminal investigation department.

Gao told Liang that he was investigating a money laundering case, sent her an arrest warrant via QQ and told her to deposit money into a secure account if she wanted to prove her innocence.

Liang panicked at the thought of being involved in a money laundering crime and lost her capacity for reason. Under the instruction of Gao, she withdrew the 8,500 yuan (US$1,234) she had in the bank, but in the moment before she deposited it into the account designated by Gao, she suddenly realized that she wouldn’t be able to withdraw it after she deposited it. Liang told Gao her concern, and over the phone Gao persuaded Liang that the account was safe and that she would be refunded if she was proved to be innocent. Gao even threatened Liang with criminal detention, and having to drop out of school if she didn’t cooperate.

However, Liang persisted and told Gao to go ahead and arrest her if she was a criminal before hanging up the phone.

According to police, the fraudsters had made arrest warrants and servers in the U.S. and Cambodia in order to cheat people. As a money transfer via an ATM can be canceled within 24 hours, the fraudsters asked their victims to withdraw money from their account and deposit it into an account they designated.

(Han Ximin)