Press "PandaGuides" above to follow us!
Chinese people around the world are being targeted by an elaborate scam in which criminals pretend to be Chinese police. A British-Chinese woman has told the BBC that she handed over her life savings to con men who wore uniforms in video calls and gave her a virtual tour of what appeared to be a police station.
Helen Young still has nightmares about the fortnight that she was made to believe she was on China’s most wanted list.
Scammers posing as Chinese police manipulated the London-based accountant into believing she was under investigation for a massive fraud back in her homeland.
Helen was presented with a mountain of fabricated evidence which appeared to implicate her in a crime she knew nothing about.
When the fake police then threatened her with extradition to a jail cell in China, Helen sent them her £29,000 life savings as “bail money”, in a desperate attempt to stay in Britain.
“I feel a bit stupid right now,” she says. “But there's no chance I can know that's not real. It's so convincing”.
Helen’s story may sound extraordinary but there have been numerous similar cases in the Chinese diaspora.
China’s embassies around the world have issued public warnings about police impersonation scams. One elderly woman in Los Angeles reportedly handed over $3m, believing it would stop her extradition.
Typically these scams begin with the target receiving a relatively innocuous phone call. In Helen’s case it was somebody claiming to be a Chinese customs officer who told her they had stopped an illegal parcel sent in her name.
Helen hadn’t sent anything, and she was told she must file a police report if she believed someone had stolen her identity. Although she was sceptical, Helen didn’t hang up.
“Chinese people like myself because we were born and bred in China, we were taught obedience,” she says. “So when government asked me to do something or my parents asked me it’s very rare that I will say no.”
Helen was transferred to a man who said he was a policeman in Shenzhen called “Officer Fang”. Helen asked for proof and he suggested they went on a video call. When they connected, Helen saw a uniformed man whose face matched the police ID he flashed.
Officer Fang then used his phone to give her a tour of what looked like a fully functioning police station with several uniformed officers and a desk with a large police logo.
“That moment all my suspicions are gone. So I say: 'I'm sorry, I just have to be careful nowadays, there are a lot of criminals out there',” Helen says.
While they were talking, Helen heard a message on the tannoy in the background, telling Officer Fang to take a call about her.
Officer Fang put her on hold and when he returned he was no longer interested in the illegal parcel. He said he had been informed that Helen was suspected of involvement in a large financial fraud.
“I said: 'That’s nonsense'. He said: 'Nobody says they’re guilty. So it’s the evidence that counts'.”
Helen was shown what looked like a bank statement for a vast amount of money in her name. Officer Fang told her that if she was innocent she must help them catch the real crooks. He made her sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to tell anyone about the investigation. Helen was warned that if she did, she would get an extra six months in prison
“He said: 'If you tell anyone you have been interviewed by the Chinese police, your life will be in danger'.”
The scammers also made Helen download an app so they could listen in to what she was doing day and night.
Over the next few days, Helen tried to act normally at work. She spent her evenings working on a personal statement that she was ordered to write, detailing every aspect of her life.
Then Officer Fang called back with the news that several suspects were now in custody. He showed her written statements in which several people accused her.
Helen was sent a video which appeared to show a male prisoner confessing to police, and naming her as his boss in the fraud.
We have taken a closer look at the video, and because the suspect is wearing a large Covid mask, it’s impossible to tell if what you’re hearing matches his lip movements. It would be easy to add a fake soundtrack that mentions Helen's name or another victim.
But for Helen - who had been convinced she was dealing with genuine police officers - the effect was devastating: “After I heard my name like that I was vomiting. It convinced me I was in deep, deep trouble.”
Helen believed Officer Fang when he then told her she would be extradited to China - even though she’s a British citizen.
“He told me: 'So you got 24 hours, you pack your bags. The police are coming to take you to the airport'.”
Helen was told she could halt her extradition if she could raise bail. After sending over her bank statements for inspection, she was told to transfer £29,000.
“I felt terrible, because I promised my daughter to give her money for her first flat,” Helen says.
But a few days later the fake police were back. Helen was ordered to find another £250,000 or be extradited.
After Helen tried to borrow the money from a friend, he alerted her daughter. Helen broke down and revealed everything. But not before she had put her phone in a kitchen drawer and taken her daughter into a bedroom, and put a duvet over their heads so the scammers couldn’t listen in.
Her daughter listened patiently and explained it was a scam. Helen’s bank eventually refunded her money, but her ordeal could easily have had a bleaker ending: “For two weeks I hardly slept. How can you sleep when somebody is monitoring your phone?"
In her sleep-deprived state, she crashed her car twice. On the second occasion, she wrecked it entirely: “I didn’t kill anyone, but I could have. These types of criminal scam could kill people.”
Source: BBC
