(Yicai Global) Nov. 17 -- YTO Express Group, one of China’s leading express delivery companies, said a number of employees and criminals on the outside made illegal gains of more than CNY1.2 million (USD182,800) from selling user information. The police have arrested those involved.

The Shanghai-based courier noticed abnormal logistics activities in July, it said in a statement today. After looking into the matter, YTO Express found that staff had leaked 400,000 items of user data. The company then alerted law enforcement.

Criminals in the city of Handan in Hebei province were reported to have colluded with insiders at the company. They rented staff accounts to access information -- including sender and recipient addresses, names, and phone numbers -- which they then sold in high-risk areas of telecom fraud in China and Southeast Asia through social media apps WeChat and QQ.

YTO Express said it will work to crack down on illegal sales and use of user data.

This is not the first case of its kind at YTO Express. In 2013, an employee peddled information on an illegal website, selling more than 200,000 bits of data.

Shares of YTO Express [SHA: 600233] fell as much as 2.6 percent this morning, before closing 2.1 percent higher at CNY13 (USD1.98) each.

Founded in 2000, YTO Express had over 4,000 branches, more than 70,000 service outlets and stores, and 400,000-plus staff in China as of the end of last year.

Editor: Peter Thomas