Cybercrimes see rise over recent years, report suggests

Cybercrimes have seen a rise over the past few years, but many were traditional offenses committed by defendants using the internet, said Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court.

A report issued by the court on Friday showed that it concluded 744 cases related to cybercrimes from 2019 to 2023, of which, just 26 targeted at the computer system or data.

"The remaining cases were all the traditional crimes, such as fraud, defamation, illegal fundraising, drug smuggling and gambling, made by defendants through the internet," the report said.

In a case, for example, a man surnamed Wang met another man while playing online games. Wang pretended to be a woman to chat with the netizen, and asked a female friend to talk to him via voice call to win his trust and further establish a "romantic relationship" with him.

Under the relationship, Wang cheated the netizen out of more than 110,000 yuan ($15, 230) through WeChat by lying about the death of family members and business failure, and then disappeared, resulting in the victim called to police.

Naming it as a typical case in which the defendant used the internet to commit the traditional crime of fraud, the court sentenced Wang to three years and six months in prison, along with a fine of 40,000 yuan.

According to the report, among 1,454 criminals in the cases solved by the court over the past five years, many were male and jobless.

While pledging to offer stronger law education for the old and young people to enhance their legal awareness, the court said that it will post more articles and cases online to help residents prevent cyber crimes, with the exploration of more measures to collect evidence in cyberspace.