Receive a sudden call from the National Immigration Administration or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? The authoritative department responded this way: after going on vacation abroad or returning to China,
I am overseas and received a call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ global consular protection and service emergency hotline 12308. The other party said that I was “suspected of a criminal case.” Can I believe it?
After returning from vacation, I suddenly received a call from the 12367 hotline of the National Immigration Administration and was told, "Your passport has illegal records abroad. Please cooperate with the investigation." What should I do?
Regarding this type of phone calls, the Chinese Embassy in the United States and the National Immigration Administration have clarified through official public accounts and other channels: they are all fake. The 12308 hotline and the 12367 hotline are both called service hotlines. They generally do not take the initiative to call the public. Those who claim that the callers have violated the law and need to cooperate with the investigation are often fraudsters.
The Chinese Embassy in the United States received reports from many Chinese citizens during this year’s National Day holiday that criminals were using the 12308 hotline to commit telecommunications fraud on the grounds of suspected illegal and criminal cases, diverting domestic police calls, and leaking personal information. Trick parties into providing personal information and making bank transfers.
The National Immigration Administration has also recently received calls from the public reporting that they have received calls one after another from numbers that are highly similar to 12367. The callers pretend to be staff of the National Immigration Administration and "have their identity information fraudulently used," "send illegal text messages," and "engage in fraud." "Restricted from leaving the country or having their entry and exit documents cancelled" and other matters in the field of immigration management, the recipient is required to assist in the investigation as requested.
But in fact, these calls did not come from the real 12367 platform. Instead, fraudsters obtained the victims' personal identity information through illegal channels, and then pretended to be staff of the public prosecutor's office and contacted the victims through phone calls. The fraudsters use the victim's suspicion of money laundering, illegal entry and exit, stolen passport, or suspected violation of law. They require the victim to download a chat software APP to communicate and keep it strictly confidential, and present the victim with an "arrest warrant", "wanted order" and "property freezing document". and other false legal documents to increase credibility. At the same time, the victim is asked to transfer funds to a "safe account" to commit the fraud.
In the above cases, the hotline numbers were used by fraudsters. Fraudsters either use phone numbers that are similar to the official hotline, or tamper with the caller ID to mislead the recipient.
In fact, the 12308 hotline and the 12367 hotline are both called service hotlines and usually do not actively make external calls. So, what is their original function?
Public information shows that 12308 is the hotline number of the Global Consular Protection and Service Emergency Call Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which provides consular protection and consultation services to overseas Chinese citizens 24 hours a day. The 12308 hotline is used to answer emergency calls from Chinese citizens and will not actively make outbound calls or provide transfer services.
In particular, it should be noted that the 12308 hotline will not notify Chinese citizens that the case needs to be handled, will not transfer the domestic public prosecutor’s office or ask the parties to call back for further contact, let alone ask for the so-called "bail money" or "guarantee money" or conduct Bank Transfer.
The 12367 service platform is a telephone hotline used by the national immigration management agency to receive business consultation, opinions and suggestions in the field of immigration management. The National Immigration Administration stated that 12367 is a called service hotline. If there are no unresolved calls, the service platform will not proactively make calls. If citizens have questions about their passport status, entry and exit records, etc., they can inquire through the National Immigration Administration government service platform, "Immigration Bureau" APP, WeChat or Alipay applet, or call the 12367 service platform for consultation.
Pretending to be public prosecutors and law enforcement officers to commit fraud is nothing new, but recently fraudsters have targeted overseas people.
The Shanghai Rumor Refuting Platform combed through the disclosed cases and found that no matter how the scammer pretends to be, the trap routine is actually the same——
The other party claims to be a public official such as the Public Security Bureau and the Procuratorate, and requires the recipients to cooperate with the investigation. In order to prove their identity, some will say that they will be transferred to the case handling department, and some will ask the recipients to make a video connection, using fake uniforms, fake official documents, etc. to gain trust. Or, the other party uses reasons such as "confidential handling" to require the recipient not to contact the outside world, with the purpose of making it impossible for the recipient to seek verification. The ultimate purpose of these calls is to defraud, so the recipients will be asked to provide personal information, account information and passwords, or to transfer money to so-called "safe accounts."
It can be seen that if you encounter the above routine, you can basically judge that you have received a scam call, hang up directly, and ignore it. Never provide personal information on such calls, do not video chat with unknown numbers, and do not make fund transfers to any account.
If you need to verify, do not call back the caller number, because the relevant number may be disguised by fraudsters; instead, re-enter the official hotline number or go to the relevant department for verification. If you unfortunately encounter fraud, you can promptly report it to the police at the place where the crime occurred.
