SHANGHAI - More than 44 million personal computer users fell victim to phishing websites in 2010, rendering a loss totaling 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), according to a report released on Friday by one of China's top computer security service providers.

Beijing Rising Information Technology Co reported that it detected 1.75 million phishing websites in 2010, more than 10 times the number in 2009.

Phishing is the fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by pretending to be a reliable entity.

Communications claiming to be from websites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used by phishing sites to trick the public.

According to the report, online gamers and online banking customers were the worst-hurt by phishing activities in 2010. Their economic losses accounted for more than 70 percent of the 20 billion yuan total.

The report cited a case in which an online banking user was cheated out of more than 600,000 yuan by phishing software called "super online banking Trojan".

Rising said the surge in phishing activities was partly due to the rapid development of China's e-commerce sector, which has resulted in a large amount of online capital flow.

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E-commerce transactions hit 4.5 trillion yuan in 2010, up 22 percent year-on-year, according to research this year by the China e-Business Research Center and CNZZ Data Center.

China's largest online retailer, Taobao.com, also saw the number of its users more than double in 2010. Taobao.com users increased to more than 370 million, up from 176 million in 2009.

"But security services and users' security awareness have not grown to keep pace with the development of e-commerce, leaving it vulnerable to computer viruses and phishing activities that undermine the development of e-commerce in China," said Su Huiyan, an e-commerce analyst with iResearch, an IT consultancy.

"Once they are tricked, some customers will lose their trust in e-commerce and stop shopping online forever," Su said.

"It is essential for China's e-commerce development that the government and online retailers make moves to provide more reliable security services and create a safe online shopping environment."

In November, China's biggest online commerce operator, Alibaba.com Ltd, signed an agreement with London-based Intertek, a quality and safety solutions provider, in a move to further improve the security and quality capabilities of its merchants.