According to the Chinese Consulate General in Perth, recently the Consulate General has received multiple consular assistance calls from Chinese citizens and students who encountered telecommunications fraud.

In order to deepen Western Australian Chinese citizens' and students' understanding of telecommunications fraud, raise their awareness of prevention, and protect their property, the Chinese Consulate General in Perth has specially sorted out the ten key steps of telecommunications fraud in recent years and summarized several countermeasures:

Fraud's "Ten-Link Chain"

Link One: Impersonation. Impersonating Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, impersonating domestic public security, procuratorial and judicial organs, impersonating staff of international express delivery companies, telecommunications companies, etc., to call or send text messages to target individuals.

Link Two: Fabricating reasons. For example, falsely claiming that the victim's bank card was fraudulently used or passport was stolen, suspected of money laundering; the phone card was fraudulently used, suspected of telecommunications fraud; a parcel was found at customs suspected of containing illegal materials, and so on.

Link Three: Transfer. The fraudsters transfer the call to the so-called domestic public security, procuratorial and judicial departments or "Interpol," and these judicial departments conduct verification. They falsely claim that the problem is not serious and there is no need to worry. Because the fraudsters use caller ID spoofing software, the numbers transferred to are all "genuine and verifiable" publicly listed numbers of the "public security, procuratorial and judicial" organs.

Link Four: Confirmation. The "public security, procuratorial and judicial" departments, through "verification," confirm that the victim is suspected of a crime, faces criminal punishment, and issue a forged "arrest warrant" to the victim. The fraudsters also present forged work certificates, police officer certificates, etc., to win the victim's trust.

Link Five: Intimidation. After the case is "confirmed," the "public security, procuratorial and judicial" personnel intimidate the victim with consequences such as being wanted, arrested, having their visa canceled, or being restricted from entering or leaving the country, and claim that the case involves state secrets and cannot be disclosed to anyone, otherwise it would violate the State Secrets Law and lead to serious judicial consequences.

Link Six: Monitoring. In order to fully control victims who have already been deceived, the fraud gang weaves an information cage. The most common method is to set up a chat group through communication software such as Skype, requiring the victim to enable screen sharing, stay online 24 hours a day, and be monitored and manipulated in real time. At the same time, they induce the victim to delete all other short video, social media and other software, preventing them from accessing any external information.

Link Seven: Good Cop, Bad Cop. After the bad cop finishes, the good cop appears. When the victim is panicked and at a loss, a fraudster will come out to play the good person, expressing belief in the victim's innocence and promising to find a way to "help" clear the charges.

Link Eight: Transfer. Frightened and then grasping at a lifesaver, the victim at this point is almost like a lamb to the slaughter. The fraudsters will require the victim to pay bail or a priority investigation fee, transferring it to a domestic or even Hong Kong bank account, and guarantee that after the case is solved and innocence is proven, the full amount will be returned.

Link Nine: Serial Fraud. After the initial fraud succeeds, if the victim remains unrepentant, serial fraud comes next. Generally, they say that as the case deepens, the victim is found to be involved in a more serious case, and the bail must be doubled. At this point, the victim will empty their family savings or even make up various excuses to borrow from relatives and friends to pay the bail.

Link Ten: Retreat. If it is determined that the victim's money has been completely defrauded, the fraud gang will retreat. At this point, they will, on the grounds of case confidentiality, require the victim to delete all chat messages, leaving no trace. Then the public security, procuratorial and judicial personnel who were online 24 hours a day in the chat group collectively go offline and disappear.

At this point, the victim may finally awaken and want to report to the police, only to find that even the evidence is gone.

Countermeasures

(1) Two "Won'ts"

Chinese embassies and consulates in Australia will not notify you by phone that there are important documents or parcels to collect, or that there are cases involving China that need to be handled; they will not ask for your bank account information or ask you to transfer money.

No police force will use instant messaging software such as WeChat, QQ, WhatsApp, or Skype to investigate and handle cases.

(2) Two "No-Transfers"

First, do not transfer calls. Never let fraudsters directly transfer the call to "public security, procuratorial and judicial" departments. You can choose to use another mobile phone to directly call the relevant department to verify, or call our consulate's consular protection phone number for help.

Second, do not transfer money. As long as you stick to the bottom line that "talking about money hurts feelings" and understand that fraud ultimately aims at money, resolutely refuse to transfer money, and maintain doubt, fraud will be hard to succeed.

(3) Two "Don'ts of Panic"

If you receive information or calls suspected of telecommunications fraud and cannot distinguish them, don't panic; communicate more with relatives and friends, or directly verify with the relevant units;

Don't panic when encountering "charges." No matter what kind of "charges" the fraudsters fabricate, be sure to stay calm, firmly believe in your innocence, and recognize that all "charges" are nonsense. Do not be led by the fraudsters.

Emergency Response

If you are deceived, you should immediately contact your bank to take measures such as freezing accounts, recovering funds, or other loss-mitigation measures.

Report to the local police in a timely manner. If the defrauded funds were transferred through a bank card in mainland China, after reporting to the Australian local police, the victim may also call the 110 police hotline of the public security organ at their place of household registration in China to report, or report through the 110 hotline transfer or after inquiring about the local anti-fraud center's reporting phone number.