More than 1,000 cases of Internet fraud were handled by the courts last year, according to the Supreme People's Court (SPP).
"In many cases, unsuspecting victims were cheated out of millions or tens of millions of yuan. The most serious case involved over 100 million yuan (15.3 million U.S. dollars)," said Li Ruiyi, a senior criminal judge at the SPP.
Different from "traditional" phone scams, Internet fraud often involves identity theft and software is employed to disguise the criminal's identities and phone numbers.
According to Li, the severity of the crimes led some companies to file for bankruptcy, while some individuals committed suicide.
In one case, suspects illegally appropriated the personal information of retirees online and recruited a team to contact these individuals with the news that they had "promotional sales" or had won "awards." They fleeced more than 1.88 million yuan from over 3,000 victims across the country.
Judges have been ordered to issue harsh punishment on key members of telecom fraud groups.
China has world's largest high-speed rail network
Top beauties in Chinese provinces
600 people attend Lusheng playing contest in S China
Engineer troop builds bridge in real combat conditions
You can urinate in public in Chongqing
Rice terrace scenery in southwest China's Yunnan
2016 Miss Chinatown USA pageant held in San Francisco
Ancient pagodas across China
Wedding dress show up in the air
Top 20 hottest women in the world in 2014
Top 10 hardest languages to learn
10 Chinese female stars with most beautiful faces
China’s Top 10 Unique Bridges, Highways and Roads
Harris is making waves in S.China Sea
With new plant, Airbus seeks to secure China market share
Chinese sound off on America’s loudest presidential hopeful
40 years after Cultural Revolution, repentance of Red Guards is still rareDay|Week
