The scale and speed of spread of scam calls in the PRC pose a serious problem for society, which has affected it especially sensitively during the pandemic. Now, scam calls account for more than 40% of the total number of crimes committed in 2023. Therefore, at the Thirty-sixth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress of China on September 2, 2022, the Anti-Telecommunications Fraud Law was adopted, marking a new stage of development criminal policy in this area.

The purpose of the proposed study is to review the problem of committing telecommunications fraud against Chinese citizens both in the People's Republic of China itself and in both special administrative regions - Macau and Hong Kong. The basis of the study is the Anti-Telecommunications Fraud Law of September 2, 2022, and its main provisions. The article provides examples that highlight the current situation in this area. Based on the unofficial author's translation of the text of the Law, a primary analysis of the criminal policy of the PRC in combating telecommunications fraud is carried out. The provisions of the law, the main directions of struggle, subjects and their functions are analyzed. Attention is paid to the fight against cross-border telecommunications fraud faced by the PRC.

Since the article is of a review nature, the conclusions summarize the sequence of actions of the Chinese government to establish the foundations of the criminal policy of combating telecommunications fraud in the PRC. Some parallels are drawn with the situation with scam calls in the Russian Federation, since, as in the case of the PRC, their main characteristic is the cross-border nature and foreign location of criminal groups.