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back to article Fraudsters nick BILLIONS from China's e-commerce Wild West

China’s burgeoning e-commerce industry has been remorselessly exploited by internet fraudsters to the tune of 30 billion yuan (£3bn) over the past 12 months despite police efforts to clamp down on dodgy sites. Industry group the China Electronic Commerce Association (CECA) was behind the concerning stats. CECA claimed that …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Exchange rates sure do change quickly....

    From the time it took to write the beginning of the article to the end the yuan/£ exchange rate went from 10 yuan/£ to nearly 13 yuan/£. - either the exchange rate moves very quickly or this article took months to write :-)

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Alibaba

    I thought that was the go-to place for dodgy gear and shady sellers.

    They do legit now too?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They have genuine sites too?

    Who knew?

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  4. Ru
    Facepalm

    "a recognisable kitemark for safe sites"

    Uh, what? Has someone actually invented a magical way of marking legit sites in an unforgeable fashion such that the average punter will be able to spot immediately when something has gone awry?

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    1. Gav
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: "a recognisable kitemark for safe sites"

      And of course, fraudulent websites would never dream of putting a safe site kitemark on their website, that would be cheating.

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  5. Kubla Cant
    Holmes

    How do they pay?

    As these are online scams, presumably the victims pay by card. Presumably the card companies or banks transfer the payment to the fraudsters, so they have some kind of ongoing relationship with them, and can help to catch them. Or does the Chinese equivalent of Visa just hand over money in a holdall?

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  6. Chris Evans
    FAIL

    UK Police no better

    We often get dodgy looking orders to our online shop and almost always spot them I've tried reporting some of these attempted fraud when they are using a UK delivery address and think there is enough evidence for the Police do something. But they are not interested, often telling me no crime has been committed which I find hard to see is true!

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  7. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Lo and behold

    And so starts the education of users of the East.

    In time, they will get angry. Legitimate companies will start beating a path to a "level playing field". Finally, standards will be put in place and, one fine day, scammers and con artists will have to find some other haven to operate under because China will no longer be safe for them. Because fleecing the West is fine, obviously, but conning their own ? That will not wash.

    It will take time, but it will happen - and when it does, China will find that copyright and commercial protection is not such a bad idea after all.

    Hopefully, they will not make the same mistakes we did, and they will avoid awarding dead mouse rights to some greedy corporation for centuries at a time.

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