Please distribute this information through your networks to help raise awareness and keep students safe.
Background
- Students have been contacted through a phone call from someone usually speaking in Mandarin and claiming to be a representative from a Chinese authority.
- The caller convinces the victim that they have been implicated in a crime in China, and that they must pay a fee to avoid legal action.
- The victim is then threatened or coerced into transferring large amounts of money into unknown offshore bank accounts.
- In some instances, victims are convinced to fake their own kidnappings – known as a ‘virtual kidnapping’.
- When the victim’s family is unable to establish contact with their child in Australia, they send large ransom payments in exchange for their ‘release’.
- Police have asked students who feel they may have been targeted to contact the Chinese Consulate or Embassy, and report the incident to police.
Media releases are listed below:
Virtual Kidnappings
Virtual Kidnapping Simplified Chinese
Virtual Kidnapping Traditional Chinese