SHENZHEN police and the market supervision authorities arrested 42 suspects who were allegedly luring people to invest in online shops.
On Monday, more than 200 police officers stormed 68 offices of the BW pyramid sales network in Futian, Luohu, Nanshan, Yantian, Bao an and Longgang districts and confiscated account books and computers.
This was the first time police in China have broken up a pyramid sales scam using the Internet, Shenzhen police told a news conference Monday.
The suspects mainly encouraged friends or relatives to invest in online shops by promising a return of 2 to 3 times the investment in a year.
An investor had to pay US$320 to join the sales scheme. Profit would be generated from a weekly 3-percent membership bonus. If the investor recruits a member, the investor can withdraw 5 percent of the membership bonus, along with commission and a certain amount for training fees.
Police found that more than 20,000 people in a dozen provinces had joined the online scam which was based in Hong Kong. The scam had involved 250 million yuan (US$38 million).
(Han Ximin)
