Over 22,000 charged with internet, telecom fraud in China

Over 22,000 people have been indicted by Chinese prosecutors for property violations through Internet or telecommunication all over China in the first nine months.

A Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) investigation department statement has called for quicker efforts to deal with cyber and telecom fraud and to tackle the problem at its root.

The statement called on China's prosecutors to better understand the harm of such violations, calling for a heavy- hitting approach. It also requires timely and sufficient work in collecting evidence.

Chinese prosecutors have indicted 22,268 people in 8,257 cases for the violations, the statement said.

According to the SPP, between January and September, prosecutors also lodged accusations against 710 people in 334 cases of computer-related crimes, such as hacking computer systems, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier this year, seven people were sentenced to prison in eastern China's Shandong Province in a telecom fraud case linked to the death of a teenager.

Xu Yuyu, a high school graduate from Linyi, died of cardiac arrest last year after being defrauded out of 9,900 yuan ($1,500 ) which she intended to use to pay university tuition fees.