China Overseas Chinese Network, September 21. According to a report compiled by 1688 Australia News, a few days ago, another case of "virtual fraud" occurred by a Chinese female student in Sydney.

The female student severed all contact with family and friends, turned off her mobile phone and hid in a stranger's apartment.

Because she thought it was an instruction from the Chinese police.

　　When the police found the girl, her parents had paid nearly A$250,000 to the girl’s “kidnappers” in order to let the child go home safely.

Unexpectedly, the 22-year-old Sydney university student who hid the girl in his apartment on the lower north shore of Sydney also thought that he was fulfilling his civic duty at the request of the relevant Chinese authorities.

This blackmail fraud is one of a series of "virtual kidnapping cases."

This year, at least nine Chinese nationals have been "kidnapped" in Australia, and the victims have transferred more than 2 million Australian dollars to the fraudster's overseas accounts.

　　It is understood that the female student mentioned above is an international student from China. She is studying in high school in Sydney.

At around 2 am on September 8, friends worried about her safety reported missing.

The police were then informed that the student’s family in China had received pictures and videos “proving that he was still alive” via WeChat.

"The kidnapper" said that she was kept in a secret place and asked her parents to transfer hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars to ensure the victim's release.

　　Police officers from the NSW Crime Investigation Division said the fraud has actually been going on for several months.

"Initially, this girl received a package purporting to be sent by the Chinese police in July, and then the scammer claimed that her personal information was illegally used on a package intercepted overseas." She was later told that while solving the problem Need to hide.

"At the same time, the scammer told a Sydney university student that he needed to take in a girl on behalf of the Chinese police because she was a protected witness. After the two met, the university student took the girl to his apartment and she Send photos to parents to prove that they are still alive, and the scammer uses this to blackmail the parents of the student, saying that she was kidnapped,'if you don't give the money, you will be killed.' Although the girl is really missing, the police Said that she has never been arrested against her will.

　　The police said that after the girl went missing, they invested a lot of time and resources in finding her, and it was not until she had a short boot-up to determine her location.

"Based on the information we found, we conducted a search and spent a lot of time. The workload was very heavy. Finally, she determined her location after a short boot, and it only took 8 minutes to boot. In fact, the fraudster started from the beginning. In the end, there was no real threat to her safety."

　　The police expressed the hope that this incident would remind the public to pay attention to the threat of "virtual kidnapping" fraud. "We have confirmed with the Chinese Embassy in Sydney that the relevant Chinese authorities will not contact students via their mobile phones and request transfers or payments. If this happens, it is a fraud."