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China gets tough on bank card-related crimes

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-21 13:35

China's Ministry of Public Security and the central bank will jointly launch a 10-month nationwide campaign to crack down on bank card-related crimes.

The campaign was aimed at curbing high crime rate involving bank cards by handling major bank card-related crimes and eliminating cross-border and trans-regional criminal network, according to a notice appeared on the ministry's website Wednesday.

Criminals would be severely punished if they were convicted of bank card-related crimes, the ministry said, without elaborating when the campaign would be kicked off.

Credit card-related crimes were on the rise in recent years as credit card services were expanding rapidly in China, Xiong Xuanguo, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, said at a press conference about one month ago.

China has the largest number of credit card holders and the country has witnessed the fastest growth of bank card businesses in the world.

By the end of November last year, a total of 2.08 billion bank cards were issued in China. Consumer expenditure by bank card accounted for 34.7 percent of the total retail sales of social consumer products.

Credit card forging, stealing and selling card information, vicious overdraft and card fraudulence, such as using fake ID to apply for a card or withdrawing a large amount of money with fake cards were common practice for criminals in China.