Asia Tech Wire (May 13) -- Germany-based cybersecurity firm SR Labs recently claimed in a report that a Chinese criminal network scammed more than $50 million from European and American consumers.

The report is the result of a three-year study conducted by SR Labs.

Dubbed "BogusBazaar," the criminal network operates more than 75,000 websites that sell brand-name clothing and other goods at low prices, according to the report.

However, the sites do not ship goods to consumers, as their aim is to collect their credit card details and scam buyers out of their money.

SR Labs said that between March 2021 and April 2024, more than $50 million in orders were transacted by these fake online stores.

An SR Labs spokesperson noted that the direct monetary loss to victims of these fake online stores is likely to be higher than the figure, and that the compromised credit card details could add to the overall loss.

SR Labs said the ring was well organized and used a cloud computing model, with a core team managing the system's infrastructure while a decentralized network of franchisees operated the fake online stores.

"A typical BogusBazaar server runs about 200 webshops, with few servers hosting more than 500," the report reads. "These servers are often associated with more than a hundred IP addresses each."

Victims in France placed the most orders, nearly 200,000, at the fake online stores, according to the data.

Users in the U.S. placed the second highest number of orders, about 168,000, with orders worth more than $12.5 million.

SR Labs said that most of the 850,000 victims of the crime ring were from the U.S. and Western Europe, while almost no victims were found within China.