Cracking down on illegal online payments this year, China's Ministry of Public Security busted 15 cases of illegal payments, involving 54 billion yuan (7.73 billion U.S. dollars), announced the ministry.

The People's Bank of China provided clues of unlicensed operating payment business to the ministry.

Many of the platforms were engaged in illegal business. Seventy-two illegal payment channels were found in central China's Hubei Province alone, involving 13.1 billion yuan. 

The unlicensed platforms for payment services normally receive the money paid by customers to businesses, and later settle the accounts with businesses using service charges of around one percent on average, according to the ministry.

They are also breeding grounds for gambling and pornography. Police in Yantai, eastern China's Shandong Province, cracked down on over 30 platforms engaged in overseas gambling this year. 

Illegal online payment establishes an "underground channel" between legal channels and illegal and criminal activities, forming a "fund pool" to help illegal criminal funds escape supervision, seriously disrupts the order of financial markets, and endangers payment security, said the ministry.