Courts promising harsh sanctions for online fraud

Courts have pledged to continue meting out harsh punishment to online fraudsters to maintain an orderly and trustworthy cyberspace environment.

A report released by the Supreme People's Court on Tuesday showed that more than 30 percent of online crimes solved by courts nationwide from 2016 to 2018 dealt with fraud, with more than 20 percent of those convicted of fraud sentenced to five or more years in prison.

Other types of online crimes included the sale of illegal drugs, gambling and pyramid schemes.

Considering the frequency of public complaints about online fraud, Luo Guoliang, deputy director of the top court's No 3 Criminal Division, pledged "tougher penalties for swindlers, especially ringleaders and recidivists" in order to "more effectively safeguard residents' lives and property".

He called on courts at all levels to improve the efficiency of hearings on such cases and step up the fight against those who illegally collect or sell internet users' personal information.

The report said nearly 20 percent of online fraud was committed after defendants obtained people's private data, with the number of people using false job vacancies to defraud people growing rapidly last year.

Previously, phone calls and text messages were the most common way fraudsters targeted people, but the tool used most frequently last year was WeChat, the country's most popular instant messaging service, it said, adding that more than half the online fraud was committed using WeChat.

In one case, a court in Hainan province sentenced Yang Xuewei to two years and one month in prison for fraud and fined him 20,000 yuan ($2,846) for falsifying his identity to pose as a female prostitute to cheat some WeChat users out of 12,000 yuan in July 2018.

In another case, in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Li Shiquan, a ringleader of a fraud group, was jailed for 14 years and fined 100,000 yuan for swindling WeChat users out of more than 9.2 million yuan by faking dating websites and pretending to be a woman seeking her "Mr Right" in 2016.

"Frauds via WeChat are difficult for us to discover and fight because conversations on this platform are private, and some victims refuse to report to police because they are ashamed of seeking out prostitutes online," Luo said.

While technological innovations and software developments are not prohibited on instant messaging platforms, he said judicial authorities should conduct further study to combat their use in online fraud.

Given that many defendants defrauded people by selling or promoting healthcare or online finance products, Luo said the public can protect themselves by not transferring money to strange bank accounts and storing identity card pictures on their mobile phones.

The report said Chinese courts concluded more than 48,000 online criminal cases in the past three years, with Sun Fuhui, deputy director of the top court's information center, saying "the number of people using the internet to offend is still rising and serious".

More than 75 percent of online criminals were between 20 and 40 years old, and many were employed in computer and information transmission industries, she added.