China’s online scam victims cheated of US$1,400 each on average, says internet watchdog
Amount cheated has risen massively over the years, with Beijing seeing the most number of internet fraud cases last year
Online fraud victims in China were each cheated of over 9,400 yuan (HK$10,500) on average last year, according to an internet fraud watchdog’s annual report.
The average amount of money each victim lost was almost 90 per cent higher than in 2015, according the report by Liewang Platform, a website where internet users on the mainland can report online fraud cases.
Liewang’s 2016 Internet Fraud Trend Research Report showed that China’s per capita loss from internet fraud has risen more than sixfold over the past few years, soaring from 1,449 yuan lost per average per victim in 2013 to 9,471 yuan last year, according to its figures.
In all, an estimated 195 million yuan was lost to internet fraud last year, compared with 2015’s 127 million yuan, the report said.
The increase in the amount of money cheated was despite a 17 per cent drop in the number of online fraud cases reported on Liewang last year compared with 2015. A total of 20,623 cases were reported in 2016, compared with 24,889 the previous year.