Victims of online fraud in China lost almost 10,000 yuan (US$1,449) each on average last year, making cyber security one of the country’s top concerns, according to a report by Liewang, an online platform of the Public Security Bureau and Qihoo 360.

Liewang noted 20,623 online fraud cases involving a total of 195 million yuan in 2016. On average, each victim lost about 9,470 yuan, an 85.5 percent increase on the previous year.

Most victims were fooled by fraudulent job offers, online gaming items, financial management products and cases of fake identification. More than 70 percent of the victims were male, the report said.

Most cases of online fraud were reported by people in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou because of their high awareness of cyber security and self-protection, according to Qihoo 360, the country’s biggest online security firm with about 700 million users.

The Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are endeavoring to improve online security nationwide and raise people’s awareness of problems such as fraud, the leaking of personal information and hacking.

People should be more cautious regarding messages about coupons, lucky draws and erotic pictures, all of which may contain hacking programs, said Liu Yang, a security expert with the Liewang online platform.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)