A total of 46 suspects have been caught for allegedly defrauding banks in a credit card scam, police said yesterday.

The suspects caused the banks to lose over 97 million yuan (US$14 million) through the scams in 2018 and 2019.

Police in Huangpu District started their investigation earlier this year after a man, surnamed Lin, reported that he lost four credit cards and that someone spent 98,000 yuan with the cards in another city.

Lin intended to settle his debt with the bank, police said.

Police became suspicious of Lin’s claims after noticing he removed the passwords on his cards and applied for a temporary credit limit increase before he allegedly lost them. And his lost cards were used in the same place at the same time.

Lin was summoned by the police for questioning and confessed that he gave the cards to a man, surnamed Wei, whom he met online, for the latter to withdraw cash from them.

Police found Wei and his accomplices applied for point-of-sales machines to make charges on credit cards from people like Lin. The scammers promised to split the proceeds with card suppliers, who could say that their cards were stolen. The suspects were caught in Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hunan and Anhui provinces in May and June.