BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Criminal cases involving illegally taking public deposits or fund-raising have been increasing in China from 2016 to 2018, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

Prosecutors charged 17,264 people for illegally taking public deposits or fund-raising fraud across the country in 2018. The number was higher than the 17,144 in 2017 and 16,406 in 2016, figures from an SPP report show.

Procuratorates across China intensified the crackdown on such crimes in recent years because an increasing number of cases of illegal fund-raising involving extremely large sums of money had been reported.

The crimes are being committed in more deceptive and complicated ways, such as in the disguise of so-called financial innovation, and online illegal fund-raising has also become common, according to the SPP.