(File photo)

According to the reports of many netizens, a number of HIV-infected people all across the country have recently been receiving fraudulent phone calls. The telephone swindlers claim to be government employees and offer subsidies to the HIV positive patients. They then ask targets to provide their national ID card numbers and banking information.

The swindlers tell targets to go complete a bank transfer. If the targets follow through and go to an ATM, the swindlers ask them to switch to the English interface and transfer money into a designated account. At the behest of these swindlers, many people have been deceived into transferring large sums of money.

Since the swindlers know the real names, ID card numbers, contact information, household information, diagnosis timelines and hospital details of the HIV-infected targets, many people are now asking how these private details were leaked. 

A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily spoke to the person in charge of national AIDS prevention organization White Birch Forest on July 17. The reporter was told that China’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reported the situation to relevant authorities, but that the online information of HIV-infected patients is fully encrypted. HIV positive people around the country have been warned about the scam.