China's Internet watchdog last year received a surge of citizen's reports on online racketeering, many of which involved distributing forged information to people who are eager to hit the lottery jackpot.

According to China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center, the agency last year received more than 142,404 reports, 29 percent of which were related to racketeering, rising 20 percent over a year earlier.

The sharp rise was caused by the growth of bogus websites that provided lottery foreseeing services or simply tell people they have won lottery prizes and need to remit taxes, postage or insurance charges, said the non-government agency, supported by the Ministry of Information Industry, Ministry of Public Security, and the State Council Information Office.

"Many defrauded people thought they could get huge profits with a relatively small cost, and they are often lack of common sense of judgement and basic Internet knowledge," said a staff member who only gave her surname as Zheng.

However, the report on "online obscenity" has dropped, thanks to the government's continuous crackdown on Internet porns, she said.

Obscene websites, though still the most reported online problem, accounted for 60 percent of all reports last year, compared to almost 95 percent in 2004.

Teachers and parents are all the time active reporters of Internet porn, and they are very concerned about students' growth in such unhealthy Internet environment, Zheng said.

After receiving the report, the agency will first check it and then issue the rectification notice to the reported websites. The report can also be forwarded to government departments for closure of these websites, the agency said in its work obligation list.

But Zheng said the agency do not handle overseas websites even if they are reported.

Source: Xinhua