美国国家公共电台 NPR Chinese Robocalls Bombarding The U.S. Are Part Of An International Phone Scam

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

People who live in places with lots of Chinese immigrants are receiving robocalls that sound like this one.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #1: (Speaking Mandarin¹).

CORNISH: A person who doesn't speak Mandarin might probably hang up. But reporter Stephen Nessen of member station WNYC in New York stayed on the line. And he discovered an international extortion scheme.

STEPHEN NESSEN, BYLINE²: On a recent afternoon here at WNYC, all the office phones began ringing at the same time. On the other end was a robotic voice.

(CROSSTALK)

NESSEN: It says you have a package or document at the Chinese Consulate³ that might affect your immigration status. Press two to speak with a specialist. So a few Mandarin speakers in the office pressed two.

KATHY TU, BYLINE: I was like, but what is this for, really? What is this for? And then they hung up on me.

NESSEN: That's my colleague Kathy Tu, co-host of the podcast Nancy. I happened to catch newsroom producer Richard Yeh the moment he got the call.

RICHARD YEH, BYLINE: (Speaking Mandarin).

NESSEN: And then it got weirder⁴.

YEH: He said, what do you want? This is Panda Express. (Speaking Mandarin) Panda Express. I said, you called me, something about a message in the consulate in Chinese.

NESSEN: Strange, but as I learned later, people like Yeh and Tu, while they are Mandarin speakers, are not the intended targets of this type of robocall. Neither is the New York Police Department.

DONALD MCCAFFREY: I get them also. In the NYPD building, I get them also.

NESSEN: Officer Donald McCaffrey started getting them several times a day on his work and cellphone. He's investigating the calls and says he first heard about them last December.

MCCAFFREY: There was a Chinese lady, an elderly woman. She's 65. She called to report that someone from the Chinese Consulate basically called and said that she needs to call the Beijing Police Department because she's being investigated for financial crimes over in China.

NESSEN: It was not the Chinese Consulate. It was a scam spoofing the consulate's phone number. McCaffrey says the woman transferred $1.3 million to a Hong Kong bank account. He says 30 cases like this have been reported to the NYPD and estimates $3 million has been lost. The Chinese Consulate in New York says they've reported this scam to the Chinese police but were told it's difficult to track down suspects. Several other Chinese consulates⁵ around the country and the embassy in D.C. have posted warnings about this scam. And the U.S. is not alone. People in Australia and New Zealand get the calls. It hit Canada last year.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

ANNIE LINTEAU: Complaints continue to be reported. And the nature of incidents appear to be evolving.

NESSEN: That's Staff Sergeant⁶ Annie Linteau of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police speaking at a press conference.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

LINTEAU: The victims are then instructed to isolate⁷ themselves. And their family in China are then made to believe that their loved one in Canada has been abducted⁸.

NESSEN: Ben Yates is a cybersecurity expert and lawyer based in Hong Kong. He says these types of calls have been targeting mainland Chinese there for over three years.

BEN YATES: If you're based overseas and you're from mainland China, then you may be concerned about the authorities questioning what you're doing.

NESSEN: He says one reason the scheme has been successful is because it isn't out of the realm of possibility that the Chinese government would be looking into what overseas Chinese are doing.

YATES: Whether it involves transferring money out of China or other aspects of your activities, it could be all kinds of things that the authorities could have an interest in.

NESSEN: He says most people in Hong Kong install an app on their phones to block suspected robocalls. But the mystery remains⁹ - who or what is behind this phone scam? The FBI is looking into it. In the meantime, the best advice is...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #2: (Speaking Mandarin).

NESSEN: ...Just hang up when you get the call. For NPR News, I'm Stephen Nessen in New York.

1 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 consulate   

n.领事馆

参考例句：

• The Spanish consulate is the large white building opposite the bank.西班牙领事馆是银行对面的那栋高大的白色建筑物。
• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。

4 weirder   

怪诞的( weird的比较级 )； 神秘而可怕的； 超然的； 古怪的

参考例句：

• Actually, things got a little weirder when the tow truck driver showed up. 事实上，在拖吊车司机出现后，事情的发展更加怪异。

5 consulates   

n.领事馆( consulate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Consulates General of The People's Republic at Los Angeles. 中华人民共和国驻洛杉矶总领事馆。 来自互联网
• The country's embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions stationed in other countries. （七）家驻外使馆、馆和其他外交代表机构。 来自互联网

6 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

7 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

8 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。