CHINA: Police Crack Phone Scam Gangs Targeting Hong Kong And mainland China

Fraud suspects arrested in Indonesia and Cambodia arrive back on the mainland.

In an unprecedented joint operation, police from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan cracked two overseas-based syndicates operating phone scams and made 431 arrests.

One gang, set up in Indonesia, had allegedly duped Hongkongers out of HK$118 million in 431 cases this year, police sources said. The other syndicate operated in Cambodia and did not target Hong Kong.

Another racket that preys on Hongkongers is still believed to be operating in the Philippines.

"It will be our next target," said a source close to the operation.

Intelligence indicated all three gangs were headed by people from Taiwan.

The operation was coordinated by the mainland's Ministry of Public Security and involved officers working with their counterparts in regional countries. It came to light when 254 mainland suspects arrested in Indonesia and Cambodia last month were sent back to Beijing, Hangzhou , Shanghai and Guangzhou on chartered flights yesterday.

Xinhua said the Indonesia-based syndicate involved more than 3,000 reports of telephone scams in Hong Kong and the mainland.

Veteran soprano Li Yuanrong, 73, who was duped out of more than HK$20 million in Hong Kong, was one of the victims.

Calling it the "biggest and most sophisticated telephone deception syndicate", the source said the gang set up its base in Indonesia, where 224 people from the mainland and Taiwan were arrested on October 19.

Guangdong police picked up a further 39 suspects.

Police from Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan are understood to have gone to Indonesia last month ahead of a series of raids on eight locations. But none of the victims' money had been recovered and no Hong Kong residents were arrested.

"The victims deposited money in different mainland bank accounts, which was then transferred to Taiwan," the source said. "Officers lost track of the money after it went to Taiwan. Police are still investigating how the gang laundered the money."

Police said the syndicate recruited mainlanders and Taiwanese to make scam calls from Indonesia. Members were given a script outlining their roles and what to say over the phone.

One call centre was set up in a luxury villa in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. New members were locked up, had their passports confiscated and were barred from using their phones.

"To avoid detection, the internet calls were made through many computer servers located in mainland China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and other Asian places," another source said. He said Hong Kong police were responsible for locating the call centres with overseas help and identifying the syndicate's key figures.

The gang in Cambodia was broken up when police raided three locations and arrested 168 people in a joint operation on October 29.

Some suspects portrayed themselves as victims, claiming they "felt pressure every day". They worked from 8am to 5pm and were forced to submit the details of 150 prospective victims each month, mainland police said. Some gang members had been recruited with bogus job offers.

They were the first arrests since the State Council set up an inter-ministry task force in June to crack down on such crime.

In the past 10 months, fraudsters posing as mainland officials have duped Hongkongers out of HK$266 million in 1,255 cases. Victims are typically told they have broken mainland laws and have to prove their willingness to cooperate by transferring money to mainland bank accounts.