Fraudsters targeting elderly caught

Almost 1,000 cold cases cracked in nationwide campaign in past month

Police nationwide have resolved 559 fraud cases related to elderly care and detained 990 suspects during the past month after a six-month nationwide operation targeting fraud related to elderly care as well as crimes that target the elderly was initiated in April, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

They also resolved 990 cold cases and arrested 53 fugitives involved in fraud cases targeting seniors, and received 11,218 tips related to elderly care fraud on an intelligent reporting platform last month.

In April, 12 central departments, including the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, set up an office for the nationwide operation to crack down on elderly care fraud and launched the operation to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly.

Chen Yixin, secretary-general of the commission and head of the office, said the operation has had a good start, and it is an urgent wish of the public, especially the elderly, and also a practical measure to maintain a peaceful social environment.

"The operation is in line with the public's will and it should combine the publicity and education of fraud prevention, and the crackdown on fraud with the rectification of existing problems," he said.

The involved authorities should, as soon as possible, focus on solving the frequent complaints of fraud in elderly care, rectify and regulate institutions and companies with potential risk of fraud, enhance elderly people's awareness and ability to detect and prevent fraud, and improve the long-term mechanism for safeguarding their rights and interests, Chen said.

The operation focuses on fraudulent apps targeting the elderly, illegal elderly care services agencies, false publicity of commercial housing, tourism projects and art businesses involving the elderly, unqualified medical institutions, healthcare products for the elderly and illegal fundraising, according to the office.

In a typical case released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, from 2015 to 2021, a company in Changsha, Hunan province, distributed leaflets in parks and squares where senior citizens like to gather to promote its financial products, with promises of high financial returns of 15 to 18 percent as bait.

After initial public outreach, the company combed through a list of potential customers and invited those who were interested in financial products to visit its exhibition hall. The staff showed the elderly people commemorative coins and other commodities and one salesman pretended to be a cultural collection appraisal expert, exaggerating the market value of the commodities to attract elderly people to invest.

After they signed an investment agreement, the company guided them to continue to store the coins they bought in the company out of trust or help them in re-investment. Without authorization from the buyers, the company then resold the same commodities to subsequent investors.

They illegally raised about 28 million yuan ($4.3 million), involving 280 participants. Later, after the company was not able to repay the investments, the investors reported the case to local public security organs. By March 2021, the police had arrested seven suspects.

They were prosecuted by the Yuhua District Procuratorate and received a range of sentences up to 10 years imprisonment.

The court also recovered about one million yuan, which was returned to the victims.

While dealing with such cases, the public security organs were reminded to identify whether there was organized crime. The Supreme People's Court also asked the courts nationwide to impose severe punishments on the criminals, including fines and confiscation of property.

The central commission for political and legal affairs has also opened a reporting channel for elderly care fraud at 12337.gov.cn, an intelligent reporting platform, to receive tips from the public that will be transferred to relevant departments and local authorities.