Fraudsters targeting Mandarin-speaking Australians are scamming millions of dollars from people by impersonating Chinese police or Chinese officials.
The scam, which operates worldwide, has duped victims across Australia out of significant amounts of money after speaking to callers pretending to be officials.
Victoria Police first received reports of the scam in July 2017, with scammers predominantly targeting Chinese nationals who come to Victoria to attend university.
Recent data shows scammers are now targeting an increasing number of victims who are not part of the Chinese student population.
In 2024 alone, police received almost 200 reports of this scam in Victoria, with victims suffering an estimated financial loss of more than $7 million.
The scammers have an array of stories to secure money from their victims, including an intercepted individually addressed parcel, containing compromised documents.
There may also be a threat of charges or arrest warrant against targets or their families, or a request to transfer money into Chinese bank accounts to avoid persecution.
Scammers also direct their victims to gag and bind themselves in a fake crime scene.
They are then filmed and directed to send the footage to loved ones to inform them they have been held hostage, and money needs to be transferred to their captors.
Recent victims included a 19-year-old student from Carlton in Victoria, who was told her personal information had been leaked on the internet. A “public official” informed her that her identification was linked to a money laundering investigation.
She was told a warrant was issued for her arrest, and to ask her parents to transfer $50,000 under a pretext of student fees to have the warrant cancelled.
The money was subsequently transferred into the scammers’ bank account in China.
Victoria Police on Monday labelled the scams as “aggressive” and “elaborate” leaving victims feeling frightened and intimidated, because often the money is not recovered.
ScamWatch received more than 100,000 reports of the scam as far back as 2019, with losses at the time totalling more than $2 million.
In 2020, the ACCC said the scam cost people from the CALD community $4.3 million in 12 months. In one of the biggest cases, a NSW victim paid $1.9 million to scammers.
In March 2023, Victoria Police sent out a fact sheet targeting the Mandarin-speaking community, noting they first received complaints in 2017 but it had stopped during Covid-19 restrictions.
The recent warning comes a month after police warned of a supernatural scam fleecing $200,000 from elderly Asian victims in Box Hill in Melbourne’s east.
In that scam, a group of women convinced victims there was a demon spirit following them and that they or a family member were in danger.
The only way to help the victim rid themselves of the spirits, they claimed, was to go home and retrieve money and jewellery and bring it back so it could be prayed over.
When the victim returned they were told to close their eyes while the group prayed over the bag, and exchanged the money and jewels for another heavy item.
-AAP
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