China's netizens have lost over 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) this year due to personal information leaks and online fraud, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
Conducted by non-governmental organization Internet Society of China, the survey polled 16,925 netizens from May 15 to June 15 and found that 7 percent of netizens had lost over 1,000 yuan on average in the past year from online fraud and personal information leaks.
China has 649 million netizens.
According to the survey, 78.2 percent of the respondents said that their personal information, including their name, home address and ID number, was leaked while 63.4 percent said that their online activities, such as call logs, online shopping records and IP address, were disclosed.
Some 82 percent of Net users said that the leak of their personal information has affected their lives while about 50 percent said that the situation is getting more serious.
Over 76 percent said that they had been tricked by websites addresses disguised as bank, Internet companies and TV stations which offered them prizes, while over 50 percent said that they had received messages in the name of China Mobile or China Construction Bank and phone calls claiming to be from public security or health bureaus.
The survey also found that over 70 percent of netizens said that they could not block advertising websites, did not know where the computer or cell phone applications came from and could not delete pre-installed software.
According to the survey, most netizens said that they had encountered fraudulent websites, discovered fake reviews while shopping online and received messages containing Trojans or pornographic messages.
Chinese actress Tang Wei, who starred in Ang Lee's movie, Lust, Caution, was making headlines as the victim of a telecom fraud case last year in which Tang was fooled over the phone to go to a bank and wire 210,000 yuan to the suspected scammer.
