Mainland, HK police destroy online blackmailing companies

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) — The police from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have cracked down on a group of hackers blackmailing Hong Kong’s securities companies online, six suspects all arrested, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said Sunday.

The MPS said in a statement that from February to June, Hong Kong’s police department received calls from 16 companies doing businesses of gold, silver and securities investment that their companies’ websites were attacked by hackers.

The companies, with an aggregate daily trading volume of 44 billions HK dollars (5.67 billion U.S. dollars), were threatened to remit a specified amount of money into bank accounts opened in Hunan, Shanghai and other areas, otherwise their websites will be further attacked and their businesses be blocked.

A total of five companies remitted money into the designated accounts in a bid to ensure their businesses, including one company that has remitted for more than 26 times into the bank accounts.

The MPS attached great importance to the case and urged police department in Hunan to investigate it. The taskforce of the case on June 20 captured six suspects, including one surnamed Xiao, in Hunan, Shanghai and Hubei.

Investigation findings show that the group organized Internet traffic to attack the targeted websites, then they contacted the attacked websites with the websites’ online instant messaging number for customer service to commit blackmail.

An unidentified official from the MPS said it was another victory against cross-border crime that the mainland and Hong Kong police have jointly made since Hong Kong’s return to the mainland 15 years ago.

“The police oppose any kinds of Internet hacker attacks, and have established close and effective cooperation with relevant countries and regions in fighting against cross-border Internet crimes,” said the official.

news@theasian.asia