Crackdown on pyramid sellers produces results

Police, industry and commerce authorities nationwide investigated more than 4,000 cases of pyramid selling and destroyed 8,089 establishments during a special campaign from June to August, State authorities announced on Friday.

Police nationwide detained more than 3,746 suspects and retrieved a total fund of 160 million yuan ($26.1 million) during the campaign, which is the largest in history in terms of scale and the number of ministries involved.

The campaign, launched by 12 ministry-level government agencies in June, saw the largest number of pyramid selling dens removed.

Li Yuzhu, deputy director of the direct marketing department with the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, said the authority will continue its crackdown on pyramid selling and further increase public awareness against pyramid selling.

Li said despite the repeated crackdowns, pyramid selling is far from being contained and is taking on new forms to hide from investigations.

“We are keenly aware pyramid selling is far from being contained even after the campaign because it has roots in factors such as unemployment and lack of investment channels among the public,” said Liu Wenxi, deputy director of the economic crime investigation department under the Ministry of Public Security.

Liu said the ministries will cooperate to establish a database that records those who were involved in cases of pyramid selling to prevent those who were punished by the authorities from returning to the scams.