The exposure of Chinese peer-to-peer site Ezubao in January as a Ponzi scheme that had hoodwinked about 900,000 people into investing $7.6 billion for what turned out to be largely imaginary ventures was a shock for many outsiders. But for the vast majority of the Chinese public, it was just another familiar episode.
In the past two years, several hundred similar sites have gone bust, voluntarily shut down, or been forced to close by the government, costing small investors enormous sums and great pain. Both the government and social media have done a great job of exposing the dirty tricks of unscrupulous P2P operators.
