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China Cracks Down on Pyramid Schemes
The three-month campaign to ban the long-prohibited pyramid schemes that staged a come-back in April has been successful, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce said Monday.
From April 1 to June 10, local administrations at various levels uncovered 1,206 cases of pyramid-type sales and other similar cases, 187 of which are under judicial review.
More than 2,000 illegal spots, headquarters for the schemes, were closed down and more than 10 million yuan was fined. Notoriously fraudulent pyramid sales were abolished by the State Council, China's cabinet, in its "Notice on Prohibition of Pyramid Sales" issued in April 1998.
However, such schemes continue to operate in disguised forms, such as sales in chain stores and via the Internet, and are spreading fast in China.
These lucrative and quick-yielding schemes have cheated many people. For example, in Nanyang City in central China's Henan province, a man had conned people out of more than 1.6 million yuan in a few months through pyramid sales before he was caught by the local administration.
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