Over 50,000 cybercrimes prosecuted since 2019

Procuratorates nationwide have prosecuted more than 50,000 cybercrime cases involving more than 140,000 people since 2019, and they will intensify the punishment for such crime.

According to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the number of cybercrime cases handled by procuratorial organs has increased in recent years. Among all the cybercrime, online fraud and gambling have been the major crimes.

Over the past four months, prosecutors charged more than 8,000 people with illegally buying and selling phone cards and bank cards used to commit online fraud. In addition, more than 17,000 people were prosecuted for opening casinos and gambling through the telecom network last year.

Zheng Xinjian, an official with the SPP, said cybercrimes are usually committed at three different levels.

Criminals at the upper level provide technical tools, collects personal information and conducts advertising promotion, while those working on the middle level commit crimes such as fraud or setting up casinos. The lower level criminals use different payment channels to whitewash and transfer illicit gains.

Prosecutors have prosecuted over 11,000 cases involving more than 27,000 people for assisting others to commit cybercrime, illegally using information networks such as telephones and the internet, and infringing on citizens' personal information since 2019.

The SPP has uncovered more than 300 types of telecommunication fraud. It said the criminals tend to be young, poorly educated people with low incomes.

Cyberspace governance is a long-term and systematic project. While strengthening judicial handling of cases, procuratorial organs will work together with relevant departments to promote the construction of law-based cyberspace, he added.

In April, the SPP set up a working group to study the major judicial policies and the application of the law to promote cyberspace governance.