Telecom Fraud · Full chronicle and history

Jiemian News reported on October 27 that blogger “Hui Jian” Wu Kai, who long exposed the inside story of telecommunications fraud in northern Myanmar and Cambodia, was abducted, beaten, and killed in China in November 2024.

Thai police launched an investigation based on leads provided by Liu, searching 3 residences in the Sai Mai district of Bangkok on October 22, apprehending 14 suspects; each person’s specific role is still under investigation.

A netizen whose IP address shows Malaysia posted a video claiming that downloading a fake digital wallet app from Huawei's official store resulted in 170,000 USDT being stolen, pointing to a lack of review in Huawei's app store, with scammers paying to list fake software and buying up search rankings.

In the early hours of October 14, 2026, Beijing time, Twitter user @jielijian posted a warning pointing out the existence of scam accounts on the platform that impersonate other people and are run by the Chinese Communist Party's internet army. The user reminded netizens to stay vigilant, not to reply to direct messages from the relevant accounts or click any links they provide, so as to prevent their personal accounts from being stolen or falling victim to further telecom fraud. Such accounts typically gain trust by disguising their identities, and then lure users into carrying out sensitive operations. The warning is currently intended to remind community users to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses and avoid compromising account security by clicking malicious links.

On October 13, a netizen in Anhui posted a video mocking how relevant departments can use big data to precisely locate individuals who have not paid their social security, yet show low efficiency in cases of missing persons and telecom fraud. The netizen also mentioned being forced to receive three doses of vaccines under the pretext of health, sparking heated discussion among netizens.

The host received a call in Washington from someone claiming to be a staff member of the Chinese Embassy, who read out the host's street address. After confronting the caller, the host called back several times to verify, and subsequently filed a report with the FBI and a complaint with the FTC.

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California announced that Liu Binhui, a 33-year-old Chinese citizen, pleaded guilty to impersonating a federal law enforcement officer in a telecommunications fraud scheme and to conspiracy to commit money laundering, involving nearly $600,000.

A 15-year-old girl in a poor mountainous area of Guangdong was selling second-hand items on Weibo when a fraud ring induced her to download remote-control software on the pretext that her account was frozen and needed to be unfrozen. Posing as customer service, they guided her into making multiple payments with her father's phone, transferring a total of 40,000 yuan from five credit cards and Huabei, with several of the payments going to Shanghai Disneyland. Her brother posted a long account of what happened; the family makes a living by her father hauling goods, and they have since reported the case to the police.

On September 30, Red Star News reported that some fraud groups in Myawaddy, Myanmar, have relocated their bases after a crackdown, moving to remote mountainous areas controlled by local armed forces and continuing to openly recruit through social platforms. Sources say the reason telecom fraud cannot be stopped despite repeated bans is that the protective umbrellas have not been taken down.

On September 30, the case of a 25-year-old illustrator in Foshan, Guangdong, known as "No Grapefruit," who fell to her death after being defrauded of more than 40,000 yuan, sparked discussion on Weibo. Colleagues said she was still posting commission notices at 250 yuan per piece the day before she died.

On September 17, a 25-year-old artist in Foshan known as "No Grapefruit" was still posting to seek commissions in order to repay debts, promising "I will definitely treat every order seriously and ensure quality," and asking the head of her art studio to help promote her commission information; according to her family, she died in the early hours of the following day.

The Irrawaddy published an investigation on September 18, monitoring three Telegram accounts for three months starting in May and collecting 9,322 recruitment ads involving multiple areas of Kayin State, showing that telecom fraud activities are still expanding.

On September 12, 2026, a Phoenix reporter conducted a second on-site visit to the Osman telecom fraud park located in China. The park was originally a casino hotel, later converted into a telecom fraud center during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reporter noted that the interior of the park is divided into multiple target zones, scamming victims from many countries and regions worldwide, and the fraudsters' working hours are flexibly adjusted according to different target zones. This report reveals the formation process and operational model of the fraud park.

From September 13 to 14, a 25-year-old illustrator in Foshan, "No Grapefruit," was approached by scammers under the pretext of commissioning a work. Posing as Xianyu customer service, they falsely claimed her account was frozen and that she needed to generate transaction volume to unfreeze it, inducing her to scan a QR code and use lending apps. She lost more than 40,000 yuan, including borrowed funds. She attached the police report receipt.

In its second-instance ruling, the Guangdong High People's Court rejected the appeals of Zhao Bing and others, upheld the original judgment, and for the first time explicitly described Hui Jian in the ruling as an anti-fraud figure.

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.

On June 12, 2026, Vietnamese media reported that Vietnamese police raided a hotel, apprehending 83 Chinese criminal suspects on site for suspected transnational telecom fraud, and seizing a large amount of equipment and documents used in the crimes.

Chinese senior officials went to Cambodia, with public agenda items including cracking down on cross‑border telecom fraud; Wang Yi and Dong Jun attended, while Wang Xiaohong did not join the delegation.

The United States dispatched a special task force to Madagascar, sweeping up local telecom fraud gangs in one go and arresting more than 400 people; China subsequently transferred more than 30 telecom fraud ringleaders back to the country. Previously, the Chinese embassies in Indonesia and Madagascar had issued fraud prevention alerts in late May.

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.

Recently, a blogger on Douyin used official reports as source material to expose insiders and connected personnel at China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Network who illegally issued SIM cards and became the hidden hands behind telecom fraud. The video was reported and taken down by the carriers on the grounds of reputation infringement.

Hui Jian was hijacked and taken away in Daya Bay, Huizhou by Cao Dong, Zhao Bing and others impersonating police officers; his phone was handed over to others, and he was forced to delete a WeChat official account article.

Blogger Hui Jian (Wu Kai), who had long exposed the inside story of telecom fraud in Northern Myanmar and Cambodia on his WeChat official account, was kidnapped by fake police in Huizhou, Guangdong, in November 2024, and later murdered in Dingnan, Jiangxi. The second-instance ruling by the Guangdong High People's Court was disclosed on October 27, 2026.

In October 2024, a netizen known as "Major" put up 1 million yuan to hire people to kidnap Wu Kai, who frequently posted telecom fraud information. The perpetrators posed as police and abducted him in Huizhou, Guangdong, forcing him to reveal who was behind the public account and to delete the articles, then moved him to Heyuan and Dingnan in Jiangxi, where they continued to beat him before abandoning him in the mountains; on November 13, Wu Kai was found dead.

A jury found Guo Wengui guilty on nine counts and not guilty on three. The guilty charges include racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and securities fraud.

Wang Yanping pleaded guilty before a judge to two charges: wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering. She accepted a $1.4 billion judgment, split between restitution for investors and forfeiture of criminal proceeds.

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."

The FBI groups the current scam variant — calls from spoofed numbers, transfer to police, presentation of ID documents, video surveillance, and remittance of a security deposit — into a four-stage process.