Chinese police have broken up 229 fraud rings and detained more than 1,400 people allegedly involved in telephone scams over the last seven weeks.

Police identified almost 3,000 scams and seized 12.48 million yuan (1.83 million U.S. dollars) since the Ministry of Public Security launched a crackdown on telecommunications fraud on June 12, the ministry said Friday.

A gang allegedly led by Lin Huiling in southeastern Fujian Province's Xiamen City was broken up by the police on July 2, said a statement issued by the ministry.

Six alleged members of the gang, based in Vietnam, were detained for "cheating" more than 300 subscribers out of more than 6 million yuan by telling them they had defaulted on phone charges.

On the same day, the police in Haikou, capital of the southern island province of Hainan, detained 130 people and confiscated 30 computers, 125 telephones and more than 50 bank cards in another mass fraud.

On July 20, police in Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan Province, broke up a gang pretending to be phone company or public security staff, who told subscribers that they owed money for the services. Thirteen people were detained and more than 200 bank cards used in the scam were confiscated.

The ministry said the police launched several education campaigns, asking students, the middle-aged and the elderly to watch educational films so as not to be deceived by fraudsters.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2009)