China sees rising online fraud in 2015

Hong Kong: China has seen increased online fraud, particularly in the field of P2P lending, in the past year, a report has revealed.

The report published by online security company Liewang, whose name translates to Web Hunt, said China has handled 24,886 reports of online fraud, up 7.96 per cent from last year.

The claims were worth a total 127 million yuan in 2015. Per capita claims were 5,106 yuan, about 1.5 times the number in 2014, it said.

Around 37 million yuan through online finance fraud, while others were related to fake employment ads, gaming and fraudulent prize schemes, it said.

Yuan Zhiyong, director of Liewang, which is operated by Qihoo 360 Technology, China's leading internet security company, was quoted by Xinhua, as saying that P2P lending, or peer-to-peer lending done without a financial intermediary such as a bank, has grown quickly in China.

Statistics show China has about 2,595 P2P platforms across the country, an increase of 1,020 compared with the 2014 figure.