China cracked more than 2,500 pyramid selling cases in 2008, China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said Sunday.

Last year, industry and commerce authorities across the country destroyed nearly 20,000 pyramid selling hideouts, and handed over 167 cases to the police, with 941 people involved.

With job hunting pressure mounting as the economy slowed down, China has to step up efforts to prevent unemployed college students and migrant workers from falling into pyramid schemes, the administration warned.

Pyramid selling activities are being carried out in a more covert way, and they are rampant in some regions, the SAIC said.

China's top legislature approved a number of criminal law amendments last month, which imposed penalty on the people who organize pyramid selling.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2009)