Four involved in telecom fraud cases sentenced to life in China

The four accused left China to form telecom fraud organisations with one of them, organising several people to go abroad to commit crimes.

Beijing: A Chinese court on Monday sentenced four “key figures” involved in cross-border telecom fraud cases to life imprisonment as China stepped up a crackdown against the gangs luring local and foreigners to work in scam centres in Myanmar.

The four accused left China to form telecom fraud organisations with one of them, surnamed Yu, organising several people to go abroad to commit crimes, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said.

In another case an accused Yang, who had been previously convicted for involvement in telecom fraud, was severely punished for taking part in the same crimes again, the SPC said, releasing details of the cases handled by Chinese courts recently.

Two convicts in a separate case were found to have recruited minors for telecom scams, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Despite their status as accomplices and confessions to the offences, they received harsh sentences, SPC said.

Along with imposing harsh penalties, the courts ordered the criminals to return the money they had fraudulently obtained and assured the victims they would receive confiscated funds, it said.

Earlier this month, hundreds of people from 20 nationalities, including India, who were made to forcibly work in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar's Karen State, were released by an ethnic armed group and sent to Thailand.

These groups lured foreign workers to work in the scam centres by offering good salaries, or in some cases tricked into thinking they would do different work in Thailand, not Myanmar.

A BBC report from Thailand said the scammers recruited workers with skills in the languages of those targeted for cyber-fraud, usually English and Chinese.

These scammers posing as officials were involved in a host of banking frauds reported from India and several other countries in which the victims were threatened to part with money in online calls.

These online scams in which people lost huge amounts of money created a stir in India, China and several other countries.

The freed foreign workers were handed over to the Thai army by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, DKBA, one of several armed factions which control territory inside the Karen State, BBC reported earlier.

These armed groups have been accused of allowing the scam compounds to operate under their protection, and of tolerating the widespread abuse of trafficking victims who are forced to work in the compounds.

In a similar case, Chinese actor Wang Xing was lured to Thailand with the promise of a film role and was then taken across the border to Myanmar and forced to take part in online scam operations.

Wang was later rescued by Thai authorities when his case went viral on Chinese social media.

The issue of cross-border fraud along the Thai-Myanmar border figured in the talks between Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Chinese President Xi Jinping during her visit to Beijing on February 6.

Both leaders discussed efforts to enhance the fight against online gambling and telecom fraud, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here on February 7.

The recent string of online gambling, telecom fraud, and other vicious cases along the Thailand-Myanmar border has threatened the safety of people’s lives and property from relevant countries, including China and Thailand, Lin said.

China is working with Thailand, Myanmar and neighbouring countries to actively conduct bilateral and multilateral cooperation, adopt a series of policies, address symptoms and root causes of the issue, prevent lawbreakers from crossing borders to commit crimes, and end the scourge of online gambling and telecom fraud to protect the safety of people’s life and property and keep the exchange and cooperation between regional countries in order, he said.