Photo: IC

The number of cross-border telecom fraud cases targeting Chinese residents has been significantly decreased in China, with 230,000 telecom fraud suspects being educated and persuaded to return to China from overseas to confess crimes from April 2021 to July 2022, said China's Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday.

China's strict crackdown on the rampant telecom fraud has effectively curbed its rising trend in recent years as the number of telecom fraud cases declined year-on-year for 14 consecutive months since June in 2021.

Working with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Public Security has saved nearly 109 million people from becoming victims since April in 2021 by blocking telecom fraud phone calls, text messages and websites.

In an effort to clamp down cross-border telecom fraud, multiple places in China, including Southwest China's Sichuan, Central China's Hubei and Hunan, and East China's Jiangxi and Fujian, have launched punishment measures for telecom fraud suspects who refused to return to China from overseas after persuasion and warnings.

The punishment measures include revoking the suspects' household registration and putting their names on a black list for dishonesty, which means the suspension of bank cards and mobile phone cards for five years.