Chinese national nabbed in Tanzania for cyber fraud
Jan 11, 2023
Hong Kong, January 12 : A Chinese national has been nabbed in Tanzania for cyber fraud, raising concern about the global threat posed by Chinese cyber criminals, The HK Post reported.
The Hong Kong-based publication said the Chinese suspect was among 11 persons caught in December for committing cybercrime. According to the report, the Chinese national was allegedly found sending unofficial devices to connect people by phone to communicate abroad against the extant laws of the Tanzanian telecommunications authority.
A huge of electronics were seized from the suspects including 23 cell phones, 437 telephone lines of various telecom service providers, six computers, five SIM boxes, three routers and one power bank.
According to The HK Post, eight other locals were also involved in the crime, including setting up social media accounts for propagating false information about Tanzanian President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan and other senior government officials.
The report further said the suspects were allegedly also posting fake and misleading information on online local television channels.
The report on cybercrime comes in Tanzania after a hackers' group named "APT41" linked to the Chinese government and based out of Chengdu embezzled about USD 20 million from US Covid relief funds in December last year.
Hackers linked to the Chinese government are from a Chengdu-based group known as APT41. The report published in December said other federal investigations of pandemic fraud also seem to point back to foreign state-affiliated hackers, NBC news reported citing the country's Secret Service.
"It would be crazy to think this group didn't target all 50 states," Roy Dotson, national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator for the Secret Service, told the US-based NBC.
The US Secret Service declined to confirm the scope of other investigations. They said there are over 1,000 ongoing investigations involving transnational and domestic criminal actors defrauding public benefits programs, and APT41 is a notable player, the NBC report said.
