Bank cards, registered with fake or stolen identity cards, are being sold in the city's underground market with card users using the accounts for illegal transactions and even money laundering.
Unscrupulous agents selling the fake cards told an undercover reporter of Shanghai Labor Daily that they were selling all kinds of bank cards which were registered with the local banks in somebody else's name.
The agents were found secretly selling those cards on websites which claim to sell card covers and wallets for bank cards.
On the website, each bank cards are sold for around 400 yuan (US$65) and the buyer of the card has to pay an extra 200 yuan to get all the information of the "real" owner of the card.
The traders said most of the buyers were mainly vendors doing business on China's popular e-commerce platform taobao.com.
One of the vendors told the reporter that new vendors use the bank accounts registered in the name of other people to set up their business.
By using the bank cards with fake names, they escape detention for violating the law or the platform's rules, the vendor said.
Some vendors buy dozens of cards and use them to "purchase" goods on online stores to make the store appear popular among customers, said the vendor, who declined to be identified.
A trader, surnamed Xu, even said he bought the cards from local residents at 150 yuan and resold them at a higher price.
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