CHICAGO, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's Consulate General in Chicago has once again alerted local Chinese community and tourists against financial scams in which fraudsters disguise themselves as consular officers.
The consulate general warned Wednesday on its official website that consular officers will never call and ask people to provide bank information, to transfer their money, or to renew their traveling documents.
In a similar alert issued in June, the consulate general disclosed a case how a senior Chinese couple living in Chicago area retrieved a heavy loss of 200,000 yuan (about 31,000 U.S. dollars), with the help of Chinese diplomats.
Scammers called the couple, using internet technology to disguise their phone number to appear as the Chinese consulate's office, and made the couple believe that their bank account in China was involved in "illegal money laundering activities."
The fraudsters then instructed the victims to transfer their money to a bank account under their control. With the help of police in China and diplomats in the Chicago consulate, Chinese authorities successfully froze the fraudsters' bank account before the victims' money could be withdrawn.
As a large number of Chinese tourists are expected to visit the United States during the week-long China's National Day holiday, which starts on Oct. 1, the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago also asked visitors to increase safety awareness and refrain from going to high-crime areas.
