China sees rising online fraud in 2015: report

TIANJIN - China has seen increased online fraud, particularly in the field of P2P lending, in the past year, a report showed.

According to a report published by online security company Liewang, who's name translates to Web Hunt, it handled 24,886 reports of online fraud, up 7.96 percent 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.

"Many of the participants in P2P lending have been cheated out of a large sum of money in the last year," said Yuan Zhiyong, director of Liewang, which is operated by Qihoo 360 Technology, China's leading internet security company.

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.