Telecom fraud suspect surrenders as top warrant issued

Suspects involved in telecom swindle cases are escorted off an aircraft by the police at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov 10, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

A top telecom fraud fugitive surrendered to police in central China on Monday, a day after the Ministry of Public Security issued a class-A arrest warrant for China's 10 most-wanted telecom and internet fraud suspects.

Tan Dunhui, 39, is accused of tricking a corporate accountant in Yangzhong, Jiangsu province, into transferring 5 million yuan ($773,500) into a bank account he designated via a mobile phone text message in June 2013.

Tan has been escorted to Yangzhong from Loudi, Central China's Hunan province, where he surrendered to local police, pending investigation, the Ministry of Public Security said.

The ministry on Sunday issued a class-A arrest warrant for 10 fugitives who allegedly committed huge telecom and internet fraud, appealing for information on their whereabouts.

The list contains the names, gender, birth dates, hometown addresses and ID numbers of the wanted, who were born between 1971 and 1989 and are mostly from the country's southern and eastern regions.

While the ministry did not specify their crimes or how many cases they were involved in, it said groups or individuals whose information leads to arrests will be awarded 50,000 yuan for each suspect seized.

This was the first time a class-A arrest warrant, usually used for serious violent or economic crimes, such as murder or robbery, was issued for telecom- and internet-fraud suspects.

Telecom-based fraud, in which suspects cheat people through telecommunication channels, is getting rampant in some regions.

Chinese police have cracked over 16,000 telecom fraud cases and apprehended over 5,000 suspects since a campaign targeting new types of telecom crime was launched on Oct 30.

Chinese police have managed to stop 5,452 bank transfers involved in telecom fraud, thanks to a quick response mechanism instituted on March 3, the ministry said.

The quick response network requires police to input victims' bank account information and a brief description of case within 30 minutes of being informed. A special office then verifies the input and works with banks to terminate the transfer.