Victims lose heavily in online fraud
Online frauds rose in the second quarter as criminals purporting to be banks, online finance firms and e-commerce sites targeted huge-volume transactions, the country’s biggest online security firm 360 said.
On the other hand, the volume of spam messages were decreased nationwide in the quarter, but residents in major cities including Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai still suffered from spam messages and calls, said 360 in its latest mobile security report released on Monday.
Online fraud victims in China lost 17,582 yuan (US$2,548) on average in the quarter, double the level of 8,213 yuan in the second quarter last year.
In this year's second quarter, a total of 6,870 online fraud cases were reported with a monetary loss of 120 million yuan. The major threats included malicious software, phishing websites, spam calls and messages, and online fraud, said 360.
The transfer by mobile bank applications, payment by barcodes and transaction vi WeChat and Alipay still have loopholes and potential risks, industry experts said.
A total of 2.34 billion spam "short messages" were found in the second quarter, half of the level a year ago, according to 360,
Since 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Chinese carriers including China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have taken efforts to block spam messages and crack down on illegal organizations and the people spreading the spam messages.
Residents in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai continue to suffer from spam messages due to their huge populations and advertising demand, experts said.