China News Service, Toronto, May 5th. The Chinese Consulate General in Toronto once again reminded the majority of Chinese citizens in the consular area to guard against "virtual kidnapping" and other various telecommunication fraud activities to ensure personal and property safety.

　　The Consulate General stated that there have been several "virtual kidnapping" telecom fraud cases involving Chinese students in the consular area recently.

With the assistance of the consulate general and the local police, the person concerned has now seen through the scam and escaped safely, but has also suffered varying degrees of psychological damage or property damage, and his normal study and life have been greatly affected.

　　Through related cases, it is found that the general process of fraudsters implementing "virtual kidnapping" telecommunication fraud is as follows:

　　(1) Randomly make phone calls or leave voice messages through technical means.

Individual callers are gullible to call or leave a message and then call back.

Fraudsters use the identity of the staff of express delivery companies, Interpol, Chinese public security departments or embassies and consulates according to different scripts to obtain the identity information of the parties and then intimidate their credit card or identity information to be suspected of being stolen and involved in major criminal or economic crimes. Quoting the person concerned to log in to the fake "Ministry of Public Security" and other websites to view false information such as being "wanted".

　　(2) Claiming to care about the safety of the parties concerned and hope that they will cooperate with the work.

In order to defraud the parties concerned, they are required to transfer small amounts of funds to a "safe account" for review, and return the funds to the remittance account as agreed.

At the same time, the parties are required to report their whereabouts regularly to "ensure safety".

　　(3) After successfully implementing psychological deterrence and defrauding the client's trust, falsely claiming that Interpol or Canadian police have begun to pursue him, asking the client to "escape" from the residence and leave the town where he is located, and seek refuge in a hotel outside the country that does not require real-name registration. And cut off all contact with family, friends and classmates on the phone, social media, etc.

Fraudsters will especially emphasize that all purchases during the escape process are settled in cash.

　　(4) Under the pretext of assisting in solving cases and clearing criminal suspects, the parties are required to purchase tapes, ropes and other props, and to take photos or videos of themselves being kidnapped, beaten or even naked in accordance with the script designed by the fraudsters.

　　(5) Fraudulently use the party’s social media account or mobile phone to send the above-mentioned photos or videos to the parties’ domestic parents or relatives, falsely claiming that the party has been “kidnapped” and demanding ransom.

Because domestic parents or relatives cannot get in touch with the parties concerned, and they see the private information and photos and videos of the parties concerned, they often believe it, and in a hurry, they pay "ransom money" to the fraudsters through transfers (including bitcoin transfers).

　　The Chinese Consulate General in Toronto has made 5 specific reminders:

　　(1) Chinese embassies and consulates abroad will not notify the parties through phone calls or phone recordings that there are documents or packages that need to be picked up or are involved in domestic cases, nor will they ask anyone for personal bank card or account information.

If Chinese citizens living overseas are involved in cases in China, relevant legal documents will be delivered by Chinese diplomatic and consular offices abroad through regular channels.

The international express company may notify that there is mail to be picked up, but it has no way of knowing the specific matters and content of the mail.

　　(2) The caller ID number can be forged by technical means. Even if the caller number is the same as the number announced by the embassy, ​​consulate or other official organization abroad, you should maintain a high degree of vigilance, and do not believe any rhetoric about transferring the call to the Chinese public prosecutor's office.

Fraudsters make random calls through technical means. Even if they can name the parties, don’t be too nervous. It may be caused by previous personal information leakage.

If you are really concerned about the content of the call, you can ask the other party to hang up the phone and call later, and take the time to communicate with family and friends to verify the situation, seek advice, or call the contact information announced by the embassy, ​​consulate, police station, etc. to verify.

　　(3) If there is a call asking the person concerned to "cut off contact with family and friends to ensure their safety", or hide, bind themselves, take nude photos or videos, etc., be sure to hang up immediately and call the police.

If you receive a phone call from a stranger to inform you of "traffic accident", "child kidnapping", "unexpected death of a loved one", etc., it is recommended to keep calm and immediately verify the situation through other reliable channels before handling it.

Do not transfer money to the other party in any way under any circumstances.

　　(4) Don’t believe in the so-called “inside information” and “preferential exchange” advertisements, and don’t suffer big losses because of temporary convenience or petty cheap.

If you need to exchange foreign currency, you should go to a formal financial institution to handle it. Otherwise, you will not only be easily deceived, but may also be suspected of participating in criminal activities such as money laundering and illegal trading of foreign exchange.

　　(5) If you find that you have been deceived after the money is remitted, it is recommended to report the case to the Canadian police immediately and contact the bank where your remittance account is opened to try to prevent the transaction (the bank has a time lag in processing the remittance business, and there have been cases of successful recovery of losses before).

If it involves remittances or collections from domestic accounts in China, it is recommended to immediately report to the local public security organ through domestic relatives (just dial 110 locally, and public security organs at the provincial and municipal levels across the country have established anti-telecommunication network fraud centers).

　　The Chinese Consulate General in Toronto also provides the following relevant telephone numbers in case of emergency:

　　Canada Police Call: 911

　　Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Tel: 1-888-4958501

　　Global Consular Protection and Service Emergency Call Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China (24 hours): +86-10-12308 (Hotline 12308) or +86-10-59913991.

　　Consular protection and assistance number of the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto: +1-416-5942308.