On Dec 21, Guyuan police of Ningxia Hui autonomous region announced that they have arrested 71 criminal suspects in an online telecom fraud case where swindlers pretending as marriage-seeking.

Ningxia police said that 150 policemen shut down four dens and seized more than 230 bank cards and defrauding scripts. The gang members are mainly from Guizhou province, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Yunnan province.

According to the investigation of the police, criminal suspects collected personal information of single men on dating applications such as Baihe and Shijijiayuan, and then contacted them via WeChat and QQ pretending to be single women. After gaining the men’s trust, they defrauded them by obtaining money withexcuses such as supposed travel or medical expenses.

There have been more than 260 victims, one of whom was defrauded of 50,000 yuan ($7,196).

On Dec 20, China’s Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly released a guideline on the applicable law of online and telecom fraud, stipulating more specific and heavier standards of punishment.

Amounts of more than 3,000 yuan and 30,000 yuan gained through online and telecom fraud are defined as a "relatively large amount" and a "huge amount" respectively. The fraudsters will be sentenced according to the responding national standards set out in the Criminal Law.

Tools used by the fraudsters include mobile phones and bank cards. [Photo by Peng Zhaozhi/Xinhua]

Police officers check phones used in the scam. [Photo by Peng Zhaozhi/Xinhua]

A mobile phones used in the scheme. [Photo by Peng Zhaozhi/Xinhua]