E-commerce boom brings phishing to China

BEIJING - China detected an increasing number of online scams taking advantage of the e-commerce boom to swindle netizens.

Authorities tracked and handled 49,613 phishing schemes, which lure users to fake sites to obtain password and other personal information, during the January-October period, according to data from the Anti-Phishing Alliance of China (APAC).

The number is a 129-percent jump from the same period last year.

Online payments and financial securities are among the most common targets for the scams, APAC said.

The rapid growth in online scams comes as an unpleasant side effect of China's e-commerce boom, which is expected to see transactions exceed 18 trillion yuan ($2.93 trillion) by 2015.

China has the world's biggest online population, with 564 million netizens as of the end of last year.