{"id":27852,"date":"2024-06-09T03:49:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T07:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=27852"},"modified":"2024-06-09T03:49:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T07:49:04","slug":"long-jail-terms-for-chinese-cybercrime-gang-in-zambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/06\/09\/long-jail-terms-for-chinese-cybercrime-gang-in-zambia\/","title":{"rendered":"Long jail terms for Chinese cybercrime gang in Zambia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lengthy jail terms have been handed to 22 Chinese citizens – and a Cameroonian man – for cyber-related crimes in Zambia.<\/b><\/p>\n

The gang’s only female convict, Gu Tianjiao, reportedly cried “papa, papa”<\/a>\u00a0as her seven-year sentenced was announced in the Lusaka Magistrates Court on Friday.<\/p>\n

Some in the gang – including its mastermind Li Xianlin – received up to 11 years in prison.<\/p>\n

The group’s members were also fined between $1,500 and $3,000 (\u00a31,180 and \u00a32,360) each.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Victims as far afield as Singapore, Peru and the United Arab Emirates fell prey to their online scams, say Zambian authorities.<\/p>\n

After a trial lasting several weeks,\u00a0the perpetrators pleaded guilty on three charges<\/a>\u00a0– computer-related misrepresentation, identity-related crimes, and illegally operating a network or service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 22 people jailed on Friday were among a bigger group of 77 suspects\u00a0arrested in April, in connection with what authorities called a “sophisticated internet fraud syndicate”.<\/a><\/p>\n

The swoop on a Chinese-run company in the capital, Lusaka, followed an alarming rise in internet fraud cases in the country, targeting people in countries around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Growing numbers of Zambians losing money from their mobile and bank accounts through money-laundering schemes which extend to other foreign countries, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) said in April.<\/p>\n

Dozens of young Zambians were also arrested after allegedly being recruited to be call-centre agents in the fraudulent activities, including internet fraud and online scams, the DEC said during the arrests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 22 people convicted in Lusaka on Friday held different positions in the Chinese-run Golden Top Support Services, the company at the centre of the raid.<\/p>\n

The company, located in Roma, an upmarket suburb of Lusaka, is yet to comment on the allegations.<\/p>\n

The Zambian nationals were charged in April and released on bail so they could help the authorities with their investigations.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the Zambians involved had been tasked “with engaging in deceptive conversations with unsuspecting mobile users across various platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, chatrooms and others, using scripted dialogues”.<\/p>\n

Among equipment seized were devices allowing callers to disguise their location and thousands of Sim cards.<\/p>\n

During the raid, 11 Sim boxes were discovered – these are devices that can route calls across genuine phone networks.<\/p>\n

More than 13,000 Sim cards, both local and foreign, were also confiscated, demonstrating “the extent of the operation’s reach,” according to the DEC.<\/p>\n

Two firearms and about 78 rounds of ammunition were confiscated and two vehicles, belonging to a Chinese national linked to the business, were also impounded during the raid.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lengthy jail terms have been handed to 22 Chinese citizens – and a Cameroonian man – for cyber-related crimes in Zambia. The gang’s only female convict, Gu Tianjiao, reportedly cried “papa, papa”\u00a0as her seven-year sentenced […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,6],"tags":[3914,1673,4835,10407,8582,10278,10406,1484,9980,10277,10408,10409,10276,10279],"class_list":{"0":"post-27852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-cameroon","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-cyber-crime","13":"tag-golden-top-support-services","14":"tag-internet-fraud","15":"tag-lusaka","16":"tag-lusaka-magistrates-court","17":"tag-money-laundering","18":"tag-money-laundering-conspiracy","19":"tag-roma","20":"tag-sim-boxes","21":"tag-sim-cards","22":"tag-zambia","23":"tag-zambia-drug-enforcement-commission","24":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27854,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27852\/revisions\/27854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}