TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Police Say China Internet Fraud Laws Are Weak

Police Say China Internet Fraud Laws Are Weak

Associated Press News Wire (ap@telecom-digest.org)
Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:34:29 -0500

Police: China Internet Fraud Laws Are Weak

Chinese police complain they have few legal tools to prosecute
ballooning Internet fraud, despite the country's fierce reputation for
strictly controlling online content.

Officers investigated 20,000 allegations of Internet fraud last year,
but relatively few resulted in prosecutions because China's laws don't
sufficiently address cybercrime, officials said in comments reprinted
Monday by the Xinhua News Agency.

"Because the laws are out-of-date, the degree to which we can attack
is not very great," said Xu Jianzhuo, deputy director of the Public
Security Ministry's Bureau of Internet Security.

That admission, first reported by Outlook magazine last week,
contrasts sharply with China's stringent restrictions on Internet
speech, including harsh prison sentences for people who discuss
sensitive political or social issues online.

While police can act against clear-cut cases of illegal pornography
and gambling, they said they have few weapons against online criminals
who steal bank account numbers and other personal information or cheat
consumers with offers of phone sex or other phony services.

Of the 11,521 cases of alleged Internet crime brought before courts
between 1997 and 2005, just 14 resulted in criminal convictions, Li
Jingjing of the ministry's Bureau of Security Solutions was quoted as
saying. Others resulted merely in administrative punishments such as
having business licenses withdrawn, Li said.

Even when investigations are successful, prosecution can be thwarted
by the diffuse nature of the Internet and the reluctance of victims to
come forward.

In one case, police sought to help people get back money from a Web
site that purported to sell exam answers, but not a single person
admitted to paying for the phony service.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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