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China’s internet watchdog ramps up crackdown on online scams amid growing number of counterfeit financial services apps
- The Cyberspace Administration of China said it has removed 42,000 counterfeit financial services apps since the start of this year
- The illegal platforms were added to its fraud blacklist, which includes more than 3.8 million websites and 514,000 apps
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Chinese regulators have ramped up a sweeping crackdown on online scams in the world’s largest internet market, as it warned that fraudsters have been creating a large number of counterfeit financial services apps to dupe consumers.
Internet watchdog the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said on Friday that it has removed 42,000 of these counterfeit apps since the start of this year, adding the illegal platforms to its fraud blacklist, according to a statement posted by the regulator on its official WeChat account. This blacklist now includes more than 3.8 million websites and 514,000 apps.
The regulator said scammers are behind a growing number of counterfeit finance apps that imitate widely known platforms like those of JD Finance, operated by JD.com’s fintech arm JD Technology, and Mashang Consumer Finance, one of the country’s largest online lenders to consumers. An estimated 5,677 fraudulent apps were found to mimic JD Finance, according to the CAC statement.
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Consumers have also been hoodwinked by some fraudulent platforms that claimed to be state-backed, the CAC said.
The huge numbers cited by the CAC reflect the vast potential market, a country of more than 1.4 billion people, where these scammers operate.
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