Security News > 2023 > April > FBI: How fake Xi cops prey on Chinese nationals in the US

Criminals posing as law enforcement agents of the Chinese government are shaking down Chinese nationals living the United States by accusing them of financial crimes and threatening to arrest or hurt them if they don't pay, according to the FBI. The miscreants involved in this financial fraud contact victims by spoofed phone or email messages, the bureau said in an advisory this week.

Popular fake identities for the crooks include agents at the People's Republic of China Ministry of Public Security or US-based Chinese consulates.

According to the FBI and other agencies around the world, Chinese officials also will pressure and threaten their targets' relatives to convince them to return to China, send threatening letters, sue them in US courts, and send covert teams to stalk and harass them.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that Operation Fox Hunt is China's way to target Chinese citizens living in the US and elsewhere that government officials determine are political and financial threats to President Xi's regime.

In a speech in January 2022, Wray said Chinese operatives also have blackmailed and kidnapped Chinese nationals and have offered bounties to criminal organizations in the US to get citizens back home.

The agency isn't explicitly saying the crooks targeting Chinese nationals in the US are part of Operation Fox Hunt, but that they "Exploit widely publicized efforts by the People's Republic of China government to harass and facilitate repatriation of individuals living in the United States to build plausibility for their fraud."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/04/12/crooks_prey_us_chinese/