BEIJING, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Reports of Internet racketeering soared last year in China, the country's Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center said Tuesday.
More than 142,404 total reports were received by the center in 2006 and 29 percent of the complaints related to racketeering schemes, marking a 20 percent increase over the previous year, reported Xinhua, China's official government-run news agency.
The center, which is supported by the Ministry of Information Industry, Ministry of Public Security and the State Council Information Office, said the sharp rise in racketeering reports can be attributed in part to a rise in Web sites that claimed to foresee lottery results or told visitors they had already won prizes and needed only to pay taxes, postage or insurance charges on their winnings.
"Many defrauded people thought they could get huge profits with a relatively small cost, and they are often lack of common sense of judgment and basic Internet knowledge," a staff member at the Internet watchdog said.
