SHENZHENERS were scammed over 1 billion yuan (US$152.8 million) over the last three years, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Thursday.

    The top types of scams involved fake shopping refunds, online credit card applications, people posing as relatives and asking for money, people posing as bosses and ordering money transfers and websites that steal money.

    The Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau Anti-Fraud Center said its anti-fraud hotline 8123-4567 received 746,000 calls last year. In the last three years, the number of people scammed in Shenzhen passed 12,000.

    Statistics show cases related to websites created to look like official websites made up 10.5 percent of the fraud in Shenzhen over the last three years.

    Website cases normally start with scammers calling victims and asking them to register an account on the website. The victims are later asked to make a purchase on the website to increase their on-website credit.

    Shopping-refund scams, fake relative scams and fake boss scams made up 7.6 percent, 6.1 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively. Credit card-related cases accounted for up to 9.8 percent.

    Over the past 10 years, the number of telecom scams each year climbed 20 to 30 percent. Last year, the Chinese mainland saw up to 590,000 telecom scams, costing victims 22.2 billion yuan.  (Zhang Xiaoyi)