CHANGCHUN, March 28 -- A gang suspected of posing as discipline inspection cadres for the purposes of fraud has been busted in Northeast China's Jilin Province.

The Tongyu County Public Security Bureau received a call from a farmer last week, claiming four men pretending to be discipline inspectors defrauded him of more than 6,000 yuan (about 984 U.S. dollars), the bureau said on Friday.

According to investigation, the four men also tried but failed to defraud some township governments and organizations while posing as a research team under the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The CPC began routinely sending teams to oversee the performance of officials in 2003, with the aim of uncovering poor conduct.

All the four suspects are under criminal detention and further investigation is under way.