Three men and a woman were put on trial at Shanghai No 1
Intermediate People's Court yesterday for allegedly engaging in a
mobile phone message scam worth nearly 4 million yuan
(US$510,000).
The four were said to be part of a larger Taiwan-based gang that
may have cheated mobile phone users out of at least 10 million yuan
(US$1.27 million) overall.
Police arrested 89 suspects in connection with the case last
November, but the two main alleged culprits, nicknamed Dou Jiang
and Rou Zong, were still at large. They are both said to be from
Taiwan.
Since August last year, the four suspects appearing in court
yesterday, led by Shi Wenhua, a 31-year-old from Taiwan, sent text
messages randomly to mobile phone users in Shanghai and Beijing
saying that their credit cards had been used. The messages provided
phone numbers for inquires.
When people responded to the messages, they were told that their
credit card information had been stolen and that someone had used
the information to make purchases. The victims were then given a
phone number to call to report the theft and encouraged transfer
their money to a "safe account" provided by the gang. Members of
the gang immediately withdrew the funds after they had been
transferred.
Ji Xiufen, one of the victims who testified in court, said she
had lost 79,000 yuan (US$9,875) this way. "I thought it (the
message) was from my bank and I worried about my money after
receiving it."
Shi told the court yesterday that each member of the gang played
a different role in the scam.
Xu Yangshan, 28, from Fujian Province, said he was in charge of
sending messages and received 1,500 yuan (US$187.5) for his
efforts. "I sent out thousands of messages each day," he said.
By the time Shi was arrested on November 3, 2005, the four
suspects had cheated 98 victims out of 3.94 million yuan
(US$492,500).
No verdict was given yesterday, but if convicted, the gang's
members could face prison terms of more than 10 years.
The government launched a campaign against mobile phone message
scams last year. From July to October alone, Shanghai police
received more than 16,000 reports of fraudulent cell phone
messages.
By the end of last year, China had 388 million mobile phone
users. According to a survey last month by the Internet Society of
China, each mobile phone user receives about eight junk messages
each week.
(China Daily December 5, 2006)