Legal basis: Article 266 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) defrauds public or private property, and if the amount is relatively large, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also or only be fined; If the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined; If the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or confiscated. Where there are other provisions in this Law, such provisions shall prevail.
Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Fraud Article 2 Whoever cheats public or private property to the amount standard specified in Article 1 of this Interpretation and has any of the following circumstances may be given a heavier punishment as appropriate in accordance with the provisions of Article 266 of the Criminal Law: (1) Whoever cheats an unspecified majority by sending short messages, making phone calls or publishing false information through the Internet, radio and television, newspapers and magazines; (2) defrauding disaster relief, emergency rescue, flood control, special care, poverty alleviation, immigration, relief and medical funds and materials; (three) fraud in the name of disaster relief fund-raising; (four) defrauding the disabled, the elderly or the disabled; (5) Causing the victim to commit suicide, mental disorder or other serious consequences. If the amount of fraud is close to the standards of "huge amount" and "extremely huge amount" as stipulated in Article 1 of this Interpretation, and it falls into one of the circumstances as stipulated in the preceding paragraph or belongs to the ringleader of a fraud group, it shall be deemed as "other serious circumstances" and "other particularly serious circumstances" as stipulated in Article 266 of the Criminal Law respectively.