China News Service, Berlin, August 6. Recently, criminals once again faked the name of the Chinese embassy in Germany and frequently carried out telecom fraud.
In order to further enhance the awareness of prevention of Chinese citizens in Germany and understand the common tactics of fraudsters, the Chinese Embassy in Germany once again issued a reminder as follows:
1. Common types of telecom fraud
(1) Impersonating an embassy or consulate
In order to induce the parties to provide personal information, the criminals used technical means to pretend to be our embassy's telephone number 0049-30-27588*** to call the parties, pretending to be a staff member of the embassy, providing information such as the person and the party's name, defrauding the parties' trust, and falsely claiming , the identity documents and bank accounts of the parties are stolen and used for illegal activities.
In addition, criminals may also falsely claim that the person concerned needs to participate in the "overseas census" or that there are important documents and packages that need to be picked up at the library, or that the person concerned is involved in a crime, and guide the person concerned to transfer to a fraudulent phone pretending to be a public prosecutor, in order to trick the person concerned to provide personal information , causing the parties to suffer serious information leakage and property damage.
remind:
The caller number can be disguised by technical means. When you receive a call showing the phone number of our consulate, 0049-30-27588***, do not relax your vigilance.
Our embassy will not contact the person concerned to conduct an "overseas census" or ask the person concerned to come to the embassy to collect documents and packages and thus request personal information, and our embassy will also not notify the person concerned of suspected crimes or crimes by telephone.
In addition, our embassy is a direct-line manual service phone, and will not send a notification through a recorded phone, or prompt the parties to dial the extension number to jump to the manual service through the phone voice.
Such fraudulent calls usually defraud the parties' personal private information such as their personal names, dates of birth, passport numbers, and bank card numbers.
If you receive such a suspected fraudulent call, please ignore it and hang up immediately. Do not provide any personal information or transfer or remit money as required by the phone call. If necessary, you can contact the embassy or consulate to verify the situation.
(2) Pretending to be a public prosecutor
The criminals called the parties and pretended to be staff members of the public security, procuratorate, courts and other national law enforcement and judicial organs, and deceived the parties' trust.
The criminals falsely claim that the identity of the client has been used for illegal and criminal activities or is suspected of committing a crime, requesting the client to cooperate with the investigation, and tricking the client into providing personal privacy information on the grounds that the case needs to be handled, in order to pay fines, pay bail, and accept "financial review", etc. The name tricks the parties into making transfers and remittances.
In such cases, the criminals often demand the parties to cut off contact with the outside world on the grounds of "secretizing the case" in order to prevent the parties from obtaining outside help.
remind:
The State Public Procuratorate and other agencies have strict procedures for handling cases. Law enforcement officers will not report the case by telephone, and will not handle cases through social software.
The State Public Procuratorate and other agencies will not require the parties to pay a security deposit or bail, nor do they have a so-called "safe account".
The State Public Procuratorate and other organs protect the legitimate rights of citizens, and will not require the parties to sever all external contacts on the grounds of confidentiality of the case.
Lawless elements are good at fighting "information warfare" and "psychological warfare".
Criminals often report forged information such as the name and job number of the person handling the case, and even provide forged web pages and wanted orders of state agencies to establish authority.
The criminals often use a stern tone on the phone to deter the parties, falsely claiming that the case is bad and may bring serious consequences such as repatriation to the parties, causing the parties to lose their judgment in a strong sense of tension.
If you receive such a suspected fraudulent phone call, please ignore it and hang up immediately. Do not provide any personal information or transfer or remit money as required by the phone call. If necessary, you can verify the situation through the embassy, consulate or official channels of the Public Security Bureau.
(3) Online dating
Criminals try to get acquainted with the parties on online social platforms. After establishing a good relationship with the parties and gaining the trust of the parties, they deceive the parties to participate in investment or lie that they are in difficulties and urgently need to borrow money to defraud the parties to transfer and remit money.
remind:
It is difficult to distinguish the true and false identities of netizens. Criminals often approach the parties through forged identities, and only begin to defraud money after establishing trust by displaying forged documents and long-term emotional exchanges.
Please be cautious when making friends online, do not add contact information of strangers at will, strictly draw a clear line between virtual and reality, relationship and money, and be vigilant when the other party mentions money.
There will be no pie in the sky, and you need to be cautious in investing and financial management.
There are professionals and channels for investment and wealth management. You cannot trust the so-called insiders or channels, you cannot use informal investment platforms, and you should not fantasize about obtaining high returns. Covetousness for money often only results in property losses.
After all, there are loopholes in the scam scripts of criminals. Please stay sensible and sober, and do not lose your judgment and vigilance because of online friendship or love.
If you are suspected of such fraud, you can contact the embassy or the police for help, and do not transfer money.
(4) Online shopping
Criminals publish advertisements on social media or online shopping platforms to attract the attention of the parties by falsely claiming low prices and selling high-quality and scarce goods and services in large quantities, to induce the parties to leave the formal trading platform, transfer and remit money through social software or fake trading platforms, and Quickly cut off contact after scamming money.
remind:
Please be vigilant when shopping online, understand and carefully identify merchants and commodity information, and be alert to merchants whose commodity prices and reserves are significantly different from ordinary market conditions.
You should try to choose a formal and reliable official transaction and payment platform, do not click on the unknown payment link provided by the other party, and pay attention to saving the shopping voucher.
If you are suspected of such fraud, you can contact the embassy or the police for help, and do not transfer money.
2. Telecom Fraud Prevention
Telecom fraud targeting overseas Chinese nationals is often a transnational crime.
Constrained by objective and realistic factors such as differences in laws and regulations in different countries, different languages, and cumbersome transnational case handling procedures, it is difficult to investigate and handle transnational telecom fraud cases.
Therefore, the key to combating telecom fraud is prevention.
To ensure that they are not deceived, overseas Chinese citizens need to develop a good awareness of prevention.
Please remain vigilant and be extra vigilant when it comes to matters involving personal information and money.
Do not believe in requests for personal information and transfer or remittance in any name, and do not blindly trust the other party because he claims to be from an official institution.
Do not add strangers and friends at will, do not click on unfamiliar links at will, do not download mobile phone software from unknown sources, do not conduct transactions on informal platforms, and do not communicate important information through social software, especially some social software that has the function of deleting chat records between both parties.
Please maintain self-control, do not fall into the bottom line of protecting personal information and property security because of online friendship or love, and do not believe in so-called high-return investment or low-priced high-quality goods because of greed for money and petty gain.
Please stay rational, calm down and not panic, and analyze the situation calmly.
Telecommunications fraud will always be exposed. When you are not sure, you can check the situation with the embassy or other trusted official channels, communicate with your family and friends, and do not act impulsively.
3. Handling of Telecom Fraud
After discovering that the other party is suspected of telecommunication fraud, please ignore it and cut off contact immediately, and do not provide any personal information or transfer money.
If you find that personal information is leaked, please inform your relatives and friends immediately to prevent criminals from using relevant information to defraud.
In case of property loss, you should properly keep the evidence and report the case to the local police in a timely manner. At the same time, you should report to the domestic public security organ. You should also contact the bank where your account is opened or the trading platform where you are located as soon as possible, and ask them to take corresponding stop-loss measures such as stop payment and freeze.
If you cannot report the case directly to the domestic public security organ, you can also report the case through your close relatives in China and ask for help from the domestic anti-telecommunication network fraud center where the case was reported.
4. Contact information for assistance in telecom fraud cases
German police number: 110
Global Consular Protection and Service Emergency Hotline of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (24 hours): 0086-10-12308 or 0086-10-59913991
Consular protection phone number of Chinese Embassy in Germany: 0049-30-27588551
Consular protection telephone number of Chinese Consulate General in Hamburg: 0049-40-81976030
Consular protection telephone number of Chinese Consulate General in Munich: 0049-89-724498146
Consular protection telephone number of Chinese Consulate General in Frankfurt: 0049-69-69538633
Consular protection telephone number of Chinese Consulate General in Dusseldorf: 0049-211-55080446