On November 9, a Taiwanese vlogger posted a video claiming that their mobile phone card, registered in Chongqing, was suspended for no reason. When they contacted customer service in Xiamen to have it unblocked, they were told they must go to a Chongqing service hall to handle it, and questioned the customer service for reading from a script and passing the buck.
On October 11, a football blogger with more than 1.4 million followers posted a video saying that he is in Argentina and that a normal transfer made on September 30 was deemed risky by the anti-fraud center, which imposed a protective payment stop. On October 8, all of his domestic bank cards and credit cards were frozen. To unfreeze them, he must go to the police station in person with his ID card to explain, but as he is overseas and unable to go, he has sought help online.
Chinese citizens in Argentina found that all bank cards under their names were frozen due to protective payment suspension by the anti-fraud center, leaving them unable to make overseas payments and cover living expenses.
A Chinese citizen in Argentina made a normal transfer on September 30, and then received a call from the local police station on October 8 saying that the anti-fraud center considered the transfer risky and imposed a protective payment freeze.
On September 17, a netizen in Hangzhou posted that after purchasing Hema shopping cards, police took protective payment-stopping measures, resulting in all of their bank cards being restricted. Even after the party involved cooperated with the police for verification, the account remained unfrozen, causing difficulties in daily life. Bank staff suggested switching to WeChat or Alipay balances, stating that using cards directly makes them prone to being frozen.
On September 15, a netizen in Nanjing transferred travel expenses, triggering an anti-fraud warning; although he proved to auxiliary police that he was not scammed, he was still required to go to the police station for a lesson. Because he refused to go, his bank card was frozen that night by the Criminal Police Brigade of the Jiangning Branch of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau.
In August 2026, a Chinese traveler posted a disclosure that during a trip to Japan, their domestic and Hong Kong bank accounts were continuously frozen by the anti-fraud center due to a misjudgment of a domestic public account transfer, leaving them in a desperate situation.
CCTV cited data from the Ministry of Public Security stating that the number of criminal cases nationwide decreased by 16.1% year-on-year from January to May. However, the phenomenon of multiple regions investing financially in expanding detention centers and prisons has led to external doubts about the real public security situation.
In 2025, Hong Kong recorded a total of 89,137 criminal cases, 50% more than the 59,225 cases in 2019. Among them, 43,212 were fraud cases, accounting for half, with victims defrauded of HK$8.1 billion. Fraud cases have multiplied fivefold from fewer than 10,000 in 2019.
Data shows that in 2024, the annual number of criminal cases filed by Chinese police (Public Security) exceeded 10 million, a sharp increase compared to 2000, with the majority of short-sentence cases involving various "pocket crimes."