A WOMAN in Shenzhen, surnamed Li, was cheated out of 1.7 million yuan (US$254,660) in a phone scam recently, and Nanshan police have filed the case for investigation.

On July 6, Li received a call from someone, who claimed to be an employee at the Shenzhen Communication Administration Bureau, saying that a phone card had been registered with her ID at a mobile phone service hall in Liwan District, Guangzhou to send a lot of scam messages. The caller told Li that her personal information might have been leaked and that she should call the police. After some hesitation, Li finally agreed to have the caller transfer her to a man called Du Guorui, who claimed to be a police officer with the Guangzhou Liwan Public Security Sub-bureau.

To win Li’s trust, the so-called police officer named Du sent her a picture of his police card and personal ID photo through QQ and provided a phone number, 020-81860719, where he said Li could check the validity of his identity with the police bureau. Li called the phone number, thought to be a fake one, and confirmed Du’s identity.

Du later called back and told Li that her issue had been solved, but that they had discovered her ID number had been involved in a criminal case and that Li should cooperate with the police investigation. As the case involved many people, different police would contact her later. Li was nervous and wanted to prove she was innocent.

In the phone call, Du told Li to apply for a priority investigation if she really wasn’t involved in the criminal case and introduced her to a so-called prosecutor to solve her issue, as Du claimed he wasn’t qualified to handle the investigation.

Li sent 500,000 yuan that she had borrowed from a bank to the personal account designated by the prosecutor. The fraudsters then asked Li to provide her bank accounts, PIN codes and payment verification codes using the excuse of making the investigation more convenient. They then told Li that the designated account would be closed for investigation purposes and asked Li to transfer money to her own accounts. To prove her innocence, end the investigation and get back the 500,000 yuan that she had paid, Li followed the instructions and sent money to her accounts. Bank records showed the money in Li’s account, nearly a million yuan, had been transferred dozens of times between July 7 and 28. The fraudsters also used Li’s information to get 300,000 yuan in loans from the bank.

(Han Ximin)