SHENZHEN grabbed first place in a comprehensive assessment of 32 major cities across the country regarding their achievements last year in combating telecom scams conducted by the Ministry of Public Security, according to a report in the Daily Sunshine yesterday, citing information from the city’s anti-telecom fraud center.

Over 1,800 calls to the city’s anti-scam hotline (+86-755-81234567) were answered in 2018, the report said. Scams involving a total of 410 million yuan (US$60.5 million) were blocked, and as much as 89.6 million yuan was returned to victims, according to the report.

The Shenzhen police handled 3,290 telecom scam cases last year, ranking first in Guangdong Province for the fifth consecutive year, the Daily said. At the same time, more than 200 suspects were captured by Shenzhen police in six separate actions in foreign countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines. The two figures broke past records, according to the report.

Shenzhen will continue to promote public awareness against telecom scams to prevent crime, the report said.

(Wang Jingli)