Next time you play Go Fish, do it with 54 of Binyang’s most wanted.
Police in Binyang, Guangxi, have started handing out decks of playing cards to local residents for free. Each card of the deck contains the image and details of one of their most wanted fugitives for cybercrimes.
There are five types of decks containing the photos of a total of 240 suspects, their birthplaces complete with address information, and the charges they face. These particular suspects were chosen and assigned to a card randomly by police. The odds work in favor of the fraudsters with coveted Joker, Ace, and King cards taking up over a fifth of the deck. However, there’s still a chance of some of these largely male ne’er-do-wells will end up as the Queen of Hearts.
▼ Knowing my luck I’d end up on the “Rules for Draw and Stud Poker” card.
Each card has the number to a police hotline which holders can call if they have any information leading to an arrest. Rewards are available starting from 2,000 yuan (US$300) which would be a perfect buy-in for the next police-card-poker-night in Binyang.
The measure was started as a way try to curb the growing trend of online fraud taking place as more and more citizens in China are getting easier internet access. It was likely influenced by the “personality identification playing cards” used by the US military during the Iraq War against Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Response to the move has been mainly positive online, with some calling it a “genius idea” and “great way to help people remember these faces.” As someone who wouldn’t ordinarily study wanted posters, these do seem like a fun and interesting way to make the public more aware not just of the suspects but of online fraud in general.
And with 150,000 packs in total being handed out I’d get as many as I could and build myself a kick-ass house of crime cards. These women pictured below appear to be on the same page, holding about 10 decks each.
Source: Facebook/CCN (English) via World Sport (Japanese)