Local action needed in cat-and-mouse game

The Central Political and Legal Work Conference held in Beijing from Sunday to Monday urged law enforcement and judicial departments to take more concrete measures to crack down on telecommunication frauds and other crimes that pose immediate threats to people's life and property.

Criminal gangs engaged in telecom frauds have developed a complete industry chain spanning China, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines, and other countries. Under the cover of "information service industry", there are telecom fraud "industry parks" on a large scale in some Southeast Asian countries operated by Chinese people and their local accomplices.

The victims are mostly Chinese living on the Chinese mainland. The fraudsters take advantage of leaked personal information to fabricate various kinds of customized cheating, ranging from e-commerce "refunds" and freezing accounts to combat money laundering to making investments and fake cyber romances, to ensnare their prey with the purpose of wiring money to their accounts.

Although China has cooperated with relevant countries to address the issue, once the crackdown pressure is eased, the gangs pop up again. Some have even become major economic engines, job-creators and taxpayers to their localities, if not a cash cow for some corrupt officials, forming complicated nepotistic connections with local communities. As the crime does not cause perceivable damages to the local society, local law-enforcers have no motivation to tackle it unless instructed to do so by their superiors.

Since the fraudsters need to be fluent in Chinese and familiar with the Chinese culture to do their job, many jobless Chinese people, after being cheated by well-paid job vacancies in foreign countries, have fallen prey to the organized crime gangs, which also engage in human trafficking and other crimes. After finding it is almost impossible to flee from their "office", which is heavily guarded by private armed forces, some of them just choose to succumb to becoming a swindler.

Ironically, rather than the damages caused to society, it is often the thrilling tales told by the few lucky runaways that grab public attention, which prompts the authorities to carry out a storm-style crackdown campaign.

Many believe as long as the telecom companies and banks act as gatekeepers the lifeline of the industry can be severed. But, in practice, it is hard to coordinate the actions of these actors in different countries, and it is also difficult to discern normal communication and transactions from those between a fraudster and a victim — not to mention the gigantic amounts of data so doing will entail for the telecom and banking system operators. Such oversight has its private rights violation implications too. Before the de facto local protection umbrella for the industry disappears, the efforts to crack down on the gangs will continue to be a cat-and-mouse game.