Police use social media to combat online fraud

Real vs fake

He said the biggest challenge comes when cheats pretend to be police officers.

For example, on May 10, a woman surnamed Duan in Beijing's Daxing district received a call from someone claiming to be an officer in Wuhan, Hubei province. Duan was told she was the target of a money laundering operation and was asked to work with the police investigation.

"I didn't believe him at first, but after I added his QQ(an instant-messaging tool), and saw he was wearing a uniform and sitting in a room like one in a police station, I got nervous," Duan said. "My first reaction was to exonerate myself, so I trusted him and did what he told me."

On the man's instructions, she set her cellphone to airplane mode and visited a bank to transfer her savings to a "safe account" he had provided.

Though Daxing police quickly tracked the man's phone number, they couldn't contact Duan because her phone was unreachable.

Instead, they contacted her family and ordered officers on duty near Duan's home to look for her.

At around 11 am, Duan's husband, who had linked his cellphone number to Duan's, received a text saying his wife had bought a new cellphone card from a telecommunications center, which helped police locate Duan at a bank near the center. However, initially she ignored them, believing the "Wuhan officer" to be the real police contact.

"I didn't believe the Daxing police until they dialed the fake and exposed his tricks directly to me," Duan said. "They told me that a real police officer would never ask people to work with an investigation via a phone call, nor ask for money to be transferred online."

Stronger measures

To combat online fraud more effectively, the national anti-fraud center－a joint force led by the State Council, China's Cabinet－opened official accounts on five major social media platforms, including Douyin, Kuaishou and WeChat, early last year.

The center regularly publishes micro dramas, short presentations and mini-documentaries about fraud investigations on the platforms to improve people's awareness.

Data from the Ministry of Public Security showed a month-on-month decline in fraud cases from June to September under these stronger, diverse protection efforts.

Although the fight against online fraud has seen success, Gao said measures are being updated to help people identify swindlers more quickly, and he encouraged them to download the anti-fraud app.

In August, Beijing police set up an anti-fraud center at the Capital University of Economics and Business "as we discovered that teachers, who easily gain the trust of students, can stop college-related online fraud more efficiently than we can", Gao said.

He added that similar centers have been established at 10 other universities since last year. "The battle against fraud won't stop," he said.