Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly popular targets of international Internet scammers, or "phishers", hoping to con the country's growing ranks of Web surfers out of their money.
Phishing, in which hackers combine spam e-mails with slick imposter Web sites to trick consumers into giving out bank account numbers, passwords and other sensitive information, has emerged as a potent global threat.
"China reported 223 fake Web sites last year, a huge increase from only one reported from 2002 to 2003," Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
Bank of China and Industrial Commercial Bank of China said in December they had found fake versions of their Web sites. Apparently only one consumer was duped and both banks said they had taken further Internet security precautions.
Most of the fake pages had been created by foreign hackers that could manipulate Chinese host servers because they were not backed by up-to-date security software or firewalls, Xinhua said.
Nearly 100 million of China's 1.3 billion population were Internet users at the end of 2004. Debit and credit card use and electronic payments are surging in the fast-developing country, making many Chinese perfect prey for phishers.
"As e-commerce and online payment services and bank business become more popular, so do these Web site imitations," a centre official was quoted as saying.
