Beijing, Jun 27 (IANS): With low prices, discounts and the ease of buying, online shopping has attracted more than 100 million netizens in China in recent times, and with it a lot of "phishing".

"Phishing" is a fraudulent process in which a fake website attempts to acquire a user's passwords or credit card information by disguising itself as a trustworthy entity.

People can find most of the things they want without stepping out of their doors. But as the business flourishes, it has created opportunities for an increasing number of swindlers, the Global Times reported.

Despite the same logo and format, it is hard to tell the difference between actual online shopping sites and the fake ones, apart from some slight changes in the address.

Once shoppers decide to pay online, they can easily fall into the trap set by the swindler, the report said.

The website induces a customer into its own payment system with false bank links. Without noticing, shoppers often expose their bank account details and personal information to the imposter. This process is called "Phishing" in internet parlance.

"Phishing takes up more than a third of the internet complaints we've received this year," Li Hong, vice director of the Internet Complaint Centre, was quoted as saying.

An online shopper named Xu said: "I bought clothes costing one yuan on a website that looked the same as Taobao. But after I paid for them, I found 1,000 yuan had been deducted from my account. I couldn't reach the seller from then on."

And getting the money back is almost impossible. One thousand yuan is too small an amount to be investigated by the police, making phishing more attractive to thieves.