Romance scams that drained millions in life savings; transnational fraud rings trafficking hundreds of Chinese nationals; fake order scams that lured victims into bogus online shopping tasks.

These were among seven cases highlighted by China’s top court on Monday to reinforce its crackdown on telecom fraud — an increasingly violent and cross-border crime. The court reaffirmed its commitment to imposing severe punishments, including life sentences for ringleaders.

In recent years, China has ramped up efforts against telecom fraud, a growing crisis fueled by increasingly sophisticated cross-border scams, particularly in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.

These scams often involve criminal tactics such as human trafficking, unlawful detention, and violent activities to recruit and expand fraud gangs. The schemes themselves are often elaborate, including online dating fraud, commonly known as “pig butchering,” fake investment opportunities, and lottery platforms, which prey on vulnerable groups such as minors, women, and the elderly.

One recent high-profile case that shocked China involved actor Wang Xing, who was abducted from Thailand in January and later rescued from a human trafficking ring in Myanmar. The incident sparked public outrage and led to a wave of travel cancellations to Thailand.

On Feb. 15, 10 key suspects involved in trafficking Wang were extradited back to China.

In releasing a new batch of model cases, the Supreme People’s Court reinforced its commitment to curb such crimes through the judicial system.

One of the most significant cases the court highlighted involved three defendants, surnamed Huang, Li, and Zhou, who ran a telecom fraud ring in Cambodia. Between September 2020 and late 2021, they swindled over 100 people out of more than 100 million yuan ($14 million).

They mainly targeted wealthy Chinese women into fake investment schemes disguised as online romances.

Given the significant financial and emotional harm caused, a local court sentenced the three key defendants to life in prison, confiscated their assets, and stripped them of all political rights.

Another case involved a repeat offender surnamed Yang. In 2023, Yang and two accomplices orchestrated a “fake order” scam, tricking victims into completing bogus online shopping tasks at inflated prices. In less than a month, they defrauded 103 victims of over 50,000 yuan. Given Yang’s prior record, he was sentenced to three years and five months in prison and fined 30,000 yuan.

In a far larger operation, the court detailed a transnational case involving a defendant surnamed Yu, who led a fraud network of over 300 people operating in Cambodia and the Philippines since 2018. His group ran online lottery scams that defrauded 111 individuals of nearly 60 million yuan by March 2020.

The scheme also relied on deceptive job postings and other methods to recruit 106 Chinese nationals into conducting fraud. Given Yu’s central role in the crimes, as well as his targeting of vulnerable groups such as the elderly and students, he was sentenced to life in prison.

The court also underscored the rise in telecom scams targeting minors. In one, two defendants, surnamed Xiao and Hong, coerced two minors into participating in phone-based scams, defrauding five victims of more than 470,000 yuan. Despite their confessions, both were sentenced to over four years in prison because they exploited minors.

At the same time, the top court reaffirmed that cooperating with authorities and returning stolen funds could lead to reduced sentences. One such case involved a defendant surnamed Shen, who pled guilty and returned nearly 5 million yuan obtained through a transnational “pig butchering” scheme. As a result, Shen’s sentence was reduced by three years to 16 years in prison, along with a fine of 1.03 million yuan.

China has ramped up efforts to dismantle telecom fraud networks, particularly those operating across borders. By the end of 2024, authorities had arrested more than 53,000 Chinese nationals linked to fraud, leading to a decline in reported cases, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

“Telecom fraud remains a major crime with high incidence, severe financial losses, and strong public backlash,” ministry spokesman Zhang Ming said in January following actor Wang Xing’s rescue. He emphasized that authorities would intensify operations against such rings in coordination with international partners.

Editor: Apurva.

(Header image: Visuals from VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)