BEIJING - Chinese authorities shut down 410 websites involved in copyright infringements and counterfeiting in the first three months of 2010 in an intensified effort to clamp down on online cheating, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

China had investigated 496 cases of copyright infringements and production and sales of counterfeits by the end of March, which involved more than 700 million yuan ($107.7 million), the ministry said in a statement on its website.

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A total of 355 suspects were arrested in the crackdown, it said.

China's online shopping has been booming with increasing Internet users. Official data shows that China had some 457 million Internet users, the world's largest, by the end of last year.

The country's online shopping transaction volume jumped 89.4 percent year on year to 498 billion yuan last year, according to statistics from iResearch, a consulting company in China. About 148 million customers purchased goods or services online, it said.

Local authorities should place more emphasis on monitoring online shops, the statement said, citing a circular jointly issued at the end of last year by nine authorities including the MOC, People's Bank of China, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, among others.

Relevant departments of Zhejiang, Shanghai and Shenzhen should request taobao.com, eachnet.com and paipai.com to conduct self-checks to eliminate pirated and counterfeit goods, it said.

Further, local authorities should expose cases of intellectual property rights violations and sales of faked products.