Is telephone fraud illegal?

Article 266 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that whoever defrauds public or private property in a relatively large amount shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also or only be fined; If the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined; If the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or confiscated. Where there are other provisions in this Law, such provisions shall prevail.

Explanations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Fraud;

Article 1, paragraph 1, where the amount of defrauding public or private property is more than 3,000 yuan, more than 30,000 yuan, more than 100,000 yuan and more than 500,000 yuan, it shall be deemed as "large amount", "huge amount" and "especially huge amount" as stipulated in Article 266 of the Criminal Law respectively.

Article 2 Whoever defrauds public or private property to the amount specified in Article 1 of this Interpretation, under any of the following circumstances, shall be given a heavier punishment according to the provisions of Article 266 of the Criminal Law:

(a) by sending text messages, making phone calls, or publishing false information through the Internet, radio and television, newspapers and magazines, etc., defrauding an unspecified majority.

(two) defrauding disaster relief, emergency rescue, flood control, special care, poverty alleviation, immigration, relief, medical funds and materials.

(three) in the name of disaster relief fund-raising.

(four) defrauding the disabled, the elderly or the disabled.

(5) Causing the victim to commit suicide, mental disorder or other serious consequences.

If the amount of fraud is close to the standards of "huge amount" and "extremely huge amount" as stipulated in Article 1 of this Interpretation, and it falls into one of the circumstances as stipulated in the preceding paragraph or belongs to the ringleader of a fraud group, it shall be deemed as "other serious circumstances" and "other particularly serious circumstances" as stipulated in Article 266 of the Criminal Law respectively.