Males more likely to fall for online fraud

The company has received more than 30,000 compensation requests from its customers claiming they have been cheated by phishing websites. More than 2.2 million phishing sites were detected by the company last year.

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Phishing sites are designed to acquire money and sensitive information such as credit card numbers and passwords from visitors.

"The nature of online fraud tends to be straightforward and technologically simple because high-tech frauds tend to be expensive to set up and their perpetrators may receive harsher punishments if they get caught," said Qi.

Although it is harder to con female shoppers, they tend to lose more money if they are swindled, according to the report.

The average money lost is close to 1,600 yuan ($257) for each female while the sum was less than 1,400 yuan among males.

Females do not fall into fraud traps easily but if they do and lower their guard, they are more likely to lose more money, said the report.

Qi said because Internet security risks remain rife, both the public and government should put more energy into cracking down on online crime.

"The central government set up a high-level cyber security office this year. It's a strong signal that the nation will beef up its ability to safeguard Web security," Qi said.

China is the world's largest market for online retailing. Turnover for the country's online retail sector is expected to increase from $294 billion in 2013 to $672 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 18 percent, according to research company Forrester Research Inc.

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