AMONG all victims reportedly swindled by financial scams in Longhua District this year, half of them were employees at Foxconn and the cases mainly involved telecom scams, according to police from the district, the Southern Metropolitan Daily reported.

The tricks used by scammers have become increasingly sophisticated, from simple fraudulent text messages claiming the victim had won the lottery to providing records of the victim’s consumption and phone bill debt, making kidnapping threats, blackmailing, claiming to have a tax refund for an automobile purchase and so on.

Additionally, fraud gangs have been employing more advanced technologies to approach victims from afar without making physical contact, which poses greater difficulties for police in solving the cases, said Longhua police during an awareness promotion activity organized by Shenzhen Banking Regulatory Bureau on Sept. 8.

The campaign was held inside a factory premise of Foxconn so that nearly 200,000 employees working there could gain financial knowledge to protect themselves from being swindled.

The campaign was supported by several banks, including Ping An Bank, Jiangsu Bank, Baoshang Bank and Guangzhou Bank. Staff from the banks shared basic financial knowledge with the factory employees through lectures and question-and-answer sessions, and by screening an awareness promotion video and distributing pamphlets.

By introducing legal financial services and products to the Foxconn employees, the banks reminded them to beware of illicit services that may deceive them. The organizers also introduced an association that protects bank consumers’ rights to the factory staff.

Luan Feng, vice head of the bureau, said that they would work with the banks to organize more such campaigns to spread financial knowledge in populated areas like factories and universities.

The battle against telescams has been a vexing mission for Shenzhen police over the past few years. The city initiated a mechanism in 2015 that allows police to freeze the accounts of scammers and return the victims’ money if they file a report in a timely manner. A total of 115 million yuan (US$17.56 million) has been successfully returned to victims since then.

(Zhang Qian)