The Judiciary Police (PJ) has picked up seven male suspects from the mainland and two men from Taiwan who were apparently hired by an organized crime gang to lure mobile phone users to illegal online gambling and possibly other illicit Internet sites.
The suspects allegedly used jammers which made it easier to sent junk messages to mobile phones.
A PJ spokesperson announced the city’s latest phone fraud case at a special press conference.
According to the spokesperson, the suspects mainly sent junk messages to people crossing the Barrier Gate checkpoint to mainland China and those who live near the area.
The spokesperson said the nine male suspects aged between 23 and 42 – seven from various mainland provinces and two from Taiwan – were arrested on Sunday morning in four residential buildings opposite the busy Barrier Gate checkpoint.
With the assistance of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Zhuhai and the Gongbei Border Management Office, over the last month PJ officers carried out an investigation after receiving a tip-off about someone sending out a huge quantity of junk messages to mobile phone users, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that about at 7 a.m. on Sunday 74 PJ officers, eight PJ information technology experts and several officials of the Telecommunications Regulation Bureau (DSRT) swooped on 41 flats in the four residential buildings.