World’s Largest Online Scam 76000 Fake Websites Over 8 Lakh Victims Duped by Chinese Scammer Network

The biggest challenge in front of the rapidly digitalizing world is online scams. Every day people fall prey to online fraud and lose their hard-earned money. Taking advantage of the advancing technology, scammers invent new tools and methods to cheat people. Now, in an investigation, 76 thousand fake websites have been detected, which pretend to be online designer shops and through them have stolen the bank card details of lakhs of people. It is being told that this network started from Fujian province of China. This network includes many developers and data harvesters, who are also paid salaries through Chinese banks.

The Guardian and two other publications have teamed up to publish a Report The company has released a report which reveals 76,000 such websites which are fake and have managed to steal bank card details of more than 8 lakh people in Europe and America. This is a large network of fake online designer shops allegedly being run from China, whose sole purpose is to steal people’s bank card details along with other sensitive personal information. Stealing data According to the institute, this is one of the biggest scams of its kind.

These scammers are running a highly organised group, which employs technically savvy developers and management. The network reportedly started in China’s Fujian province. Investigations have revealed that several IP (Internet Protocol) addresses have been found in China, some of which are located in the Fujian cities of Putian and Fuzhou. The group has several developers and data harvesters, who are also paid salaries through Chinese banks.

“There were also three templates for employment contracts, where the employer is listed as Fuzhou Zhongxing Network Technology Co., Ltd,” the investigation reads. These shops were uncovered by German cybersecurity consultancy Security Research Labs (SR Labs), which later shared the data with the Guardian.

it Scam It started with programmers creating fake online stores that offer deals on popular luxury brands including Nike, Hugo Boss, Dior, Versace, Prada and many more. The earliest fake website offering such deals dates back to 2015. Reports reveal that these websites have been launched in several languages ​​including English, German, French, Spanish, Swedish and Italian.

Over the past three years, more than 1 million orders have been processed in this big scam. They lure buyers into sharing sensitive personal information and banking details, which often results in customers not receiving the items they have paid for. Not only this, data analysis also revealed that during this period, this scamming group managed to loot about 50 million euros (about Rs 45 lakh). An estimated 800,000 individuals have fallen prey to this scam, most of whom are based in the US and Europe.