China Mobile Hides "Insider," Selling Information Leads to Punishment
[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
[4] Wang, an employee at a China Mobile service hall, secretly collected customers' phone numbers and other information, and sold this personal data for profit. Ultimately, Wang was sentenced by the court for the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information.
Case review
[5] Wang, born in 1997, was originally an employee at a service hall of China Mobile's Jiangxi branch. In November 2018, she was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and fined 60,000 yuan for the crime of fraud.
[6] In January 2022, Wang was placed under residential surveillance for suspected infringement of citizens' personal information. In May of the same year, the Jiangxi Jinxi County People's Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against her for the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information.
According to the prosecution, between November 2020 and March 2021, Wang, while working at a branch of China Mobile in Jiangxi, took advantage of her position to privately collect customers' phone numbers and screenshots of verification codes from platforms such as Meituan, Alipay, Taobao, Zanli, JD.com, Suning, and others during business transactions like broadband and phone credit top-ups. She then sent this information to a WeChat group created by her superior, Jiang Moubiao (handled separately), for profit. Statistics show Wang earned 6,650 yuan. After the incident, she returned all illegal gains.
The Jinxi County People's Court ruled that the defendant Wang repeatedly used her position to illegally collect citizens' personal information and sold it to others for profit, constituting the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information. The charges brought by the public prosecution were upheld.
The court determined that after the incident, the defendant showed a frank attitude, voluntarily confessed and accepted punishment, and could be leniently punished according to law. The defendant also returned the stolen goods, which could be considered for a lighter sentence. Since Wang committed a new crime during her probation period, the probation should be revoked, and multiple crimes should be punished together. Ultimately, the court's first-instance verdict revoked the probation part of Wang's previous fraud conviction; Wang was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan for the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information; combined with the previous sentence, she was sentenced to three years and three months in prison and fined 70,000 yuan.
"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 253-1: [Crime of Infringing on Citizens' Personal Information]
Whoever, in violation of relevant state regulations, sells or provides citizens' personal information to others, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the circumstances are especially serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.
Whoever, in violation of relevant state regulations, sells or provides citizens' personal information obtained during the performance of duties or provision of services to others shall be given a heavier punishment in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
Whoever steals or otherwise illegally obtains citizens' personal information shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph.
Where a unit commits any of the crimes mentioned in the preceding three paragraphs, a fine shall be imposed on the unit, and the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the respective paragraphs.
[1] The author's perspective
The focus of this case lies in the serious issues of personal information infringement and telecom network fraud. To protect personal information, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a notice on June 21 to strengthen the coordination between criminal prosecution and public interest litigation to crack down on telecom network crimes and enhance personal information protection. This shows that China now places great importance on combating illegal activities involving the leakage of citizens' personal information, especially when an "insider" is found in a large state-owned enterprise like China Mobile, making the impact even worse.
Industries such as finance, telecommunications, internet, and recruitment are more prone to involving others' personal information, making them high-risk areas for telecom network fraud. The state must not only legislate strict supervision but also popularize knowledge education. Particularly, the elderly and minors are vulnerable groups prone to fraud, so family members should be more vigilant. Additionally, downloading the National Anti-Fraud Center app can greatly help prevent fraud. Only through the concerted efforts of all parties can criminals be exposed.
