Pyramid selling is becoming rampant in the country despite a
number of crackdowns over the years, officials said yesterday.
Officials from the Ministry of Public Security and State
Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said the government
is also considering revising relevant laws to impose heavier
punishments against people engaging in such a selling practice.
"Pyramid selling, outlawed in the country about 10 years ago, is
still serious. And it's growing," Gao Feng, deputy director of the
ministry's economic crime investigation bureau, said.
Ministry figures released yesterday show that police in 14
provinces and autonomous regions where pyramid selling is
particularly rampant, including Guangxi, Guangdong, Shandong and
Henan, dealt with 800 cases from July 16 to August 15, involving
1.7 billion yuan (US$224 million) in illegal sales.
However, the figure for the entire country last year was 2,081
cases, or about 170 cases a month.
Gao said a pyramid sales organization often requires every
member to pay a non-refundable registration fee, and then they have
to coax other people to join the multi-level network and earn
commissions based on the number of new members they entice.
He said a multi-level network is the basic characteristic of
pyramid selling, and such organizations often brainwash new members
and limit their movements to one area.
"We call them economic cults," Gao said. "They can turn a normal
person into an idiot."
He said many people fall in the trap because they believe in
getting rich overnight, and such desire is particularly strong as
China is undergoing a social transformation.
A large number of low-income people, such as migrants, laid-off
workers and fresh school graduates, also facilitate the development
of pyramid selling, Zhang Hui, director of the SAIC's direct sales
supervision bureau, said. Direct selling without multi-levels is
allowed in China.
Official figures show that from July 16 to August 15, industry
and commerce administrations handled 1,179 minor pyramid selling
cases and dispersed 250,000 people involved.
Zhang said pyramid selling disturbs economic order and triggers
serious criminal crimes and mass incidents.
"It's a cancer in the society," he said.
Both Gao and Zhang agreed that poor social administration in
some places and mild punishments for pyramid selling give rise to
the illegal practice.
Under existing laws, pyramid selling organizers are only charged
with "illegal business operations" and usually receive a sentence
of less than five years.
Gao said his ministry and the SAIC are proposing a revision of
relevant laws that offer clearer provisions and heavier punishments
for pyramid selling crimes.
(China Daily August 28, 2007)