Chinese police investigating 5 missing teens issue further warnings about telecoms crime
Police in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province in central China, issued a notice on Wednesday, confirming the disappearance of an 18-year-old high school student who had travelled to a city in Yunnan, a southwestern province on the border with Myanmar.
According to his parents, the student left school to look for a job in Hefei in April. He told his parents where he was working but in late June his mother could not find him at the address.
He was reported last seen near a restaurant in Jinghong, Yunnan, after coming out of Xishuangbanna airport on June 5, having flown from Nanjing. Jinghong police said they had no further information about him.
In the past month, many teenagers aged 18 or 19 who set out to travel or work during the summer holiday reportedly travelled to Yunnan without their families' knowledge, and then lost contact in the border area.
According to Elephant News, an official news outlet in Henan province, a mother in Hubei urgently sought help on Tuesday, saying that her high school student son and two of his classmates had lost contact after going to Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture on June 24, and that they were suspected to be in Myanmar, where telecoms-related crime is rampant.
Hubei police confirmed the case, saying the three students arrived in Xishuangbanna prefecture on June 25 and lost contact with their families and friends two days later. Their last message was sent from abroad, police said.
The mother in Hubei said her son had previously met a "buddy" on the internet who had invited the three to go to Yunnan with him, saying he was "delivering rhino horns".
A special team was set up by Hubei's Huangzhou police force to move quickly to Yunnan to investigate, the police report said.
Another family lost track of their high school graduate son, surnamed Peng, in Shaanxi province on July 4, according to the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald. Peng sent a message to his girlfriend saying that he was in Myanmar and, after she sent him news related to online fraud in the country, he messaged that he "had not been scammed".
According to Peng's mother, she and some of Peng's friends managed to dial his number, but the person who answered the phone was not Peng and claimed to be from Myanmar and working in the compounds there.
"We're a rural family and we are at our wits' end," Peng's mother said. She told reporters she had received several calls from people claiming to be connected to Myanmar's military, saying they could help rescue her son for 200,000 yuan (900,000 baht).
Huangzhou police in Hubei warned students to be wary of offer for high-paying part-time jobs and invitations from netizens.
The Guangdong-based Yangcheng Evening News quoted border officials at Guangzhou Baiyun airport as saying that parents must better guide, educate and supervise their children.
Police say they are continuing to investigate the cases.
Teenage students are not the only victims of rapidly growing telecoms fraud.
On July 4, the Chinese embassy in Thailand said it had rescued a Chinese model who had accepted a job offer in Thailand from his former employer but was then tricked into going to Myanmar.
The number of people being lured, kidnapped and trafficked to compounds in Southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, has continued to rise in recent years, despite repeated public awareness campaigns.
In January, the case of kidnapped Chinese actor Wang Xing drew public attention to international gangs involved in telecoms crime.
Wang was lured to Thailand by a fake agent on the pretext of work on a film shoot. He was rescued after his girlfriend sounded the alarm about his disappearance.
Since the beginning of this year, relevant government departments from China, Myanmar and Thailand have worked together to launch a fierce offensive against telecommunications and internet fraud crimes in the Myawaddy area, arresting and repatriating more than 5,400 Chinese nationals involved in fraud, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
On July 4, the second ministerial meeting on jointly combating telecommunications and internet fraud crimes between China, Myanmar and Thailand was held in Myanmar's capital Nya Pyi Taw. They all agreed to deepen cooperation to safeguard the rights and interests of their people.
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