Four leading members of a fraud gang have been sentenced to up to 14 years' imprisonment for telephone fraud — swindling more than 32.2 million yuan (US$4.8 million).

According to Jinshan District People's Court, the fraudsters, two of them general managers of intellectual technology companies, organized more than 140 people — most of them employees of their companies — to phone people at random telling them they had won prizes in a company anniversary lottery.

The scam started in April 2015 and the "prizes" offered were usually cheap jewelry or collections of low-priced bank notes. "Winners" were persuaded into paying tax and deposit fees as well as transport costs for their prizes that exceeded their real worth.

In an attempt to avoid attention from police, the gang changed tactics last December, phoning people to say they had won a 1,000-yuan coupon to buy bank notes for a special collector's edition.

The swindlers were arrested on January 13.

Jinshan District People's Court adjudicated on Monday. Two of the swindlers were sentenced to 14 years and 13 years and six months respectively, as well as being fined 2 million yuan fine.

The other two were each fined 300,000 yuan, and handed prison terms of 10 years and 11 years respectively.

A further 100 people suspected of being involved in the fraud will face adjudication soon.

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