Many Chinese and expats in China have been victims of phone and online scams. (Photo : Getty Images)
Phone and online scams are rampant in China. A recent report was released that the scams are aiming at expats who are becoming more vulnerable to fraudsters.
This was the case for Austin Guidry, an American working in Beijing for the past five years. He can speak fluent Chinese.
Guidy received a call and was informed that a package arrived for him. The so-called parcel service wanted him to give his personal details.
He said, "I asked them where the package had been delivered, but they wanted to know my full name, address, and ID number before telling me where the package was. I talked to them for a second but then I realized that I had not ordered anything. I hung up the phone immediately."
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the number of telecom fraud cases has increased by 70 percent per year from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, there were over 400,000 telecom fraud incidents that occurred in China.
Another case of fraud involved Xu Yuyu, a high school graduate from Linyi, Shandong Province, who died of "cardiac and respiratory arrest" on Aug. 21, after a con artist defrauded her of 9,900 yuan. She was asked to send money to a third party account in exchange for a scholarship.
Hao Yide has been dealing with fraud in China since 2012. He is a lawyer who works with the Beijing-based Yingke Law Firm.
"Most con artists register fake companies, addresses and use false information to contact the victim. When defrauding expats, they give them the falsified information and later disappear to register a new company somewhere else. Because expats are not familiar with China and may not have friends in many cities, it is harder for them to find a person to help check the authenticity of the information or find the con artists," said Hao.
