Submitted by admin on Wed, 2005-11-02 09:00. ::
The new campaign is an extension of a crackdown started last year on pornographic and subversive content and spam messages sent by mobile phones or through the Internet.
"Illegal short messages have become a major cause of damage to social order," Wu Heping, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, was quoted as saying by the Beijing News on Wednesday.
Nine scams by one group -- a drop in the bucket of the nationwide problem -- tricked victims out of more than 1 million yuan in less than 20 days, Wu said.
Wu said his ministry would work with the Ministry of Information Industry and the China Banking Regulatory Commission to stamp out messages that duped people into turning over personal account information or involved prostitution, gambling, contract murder, guns for sale, fake lotteries and more.
One short message that has made the rounds among Chinese mobile phones reads: "Our company provides the following services: fake certifications, sales of smuggled cars, firearms, counterfeit money and drugs and private investigating."
On receiving the reports, police would forward the information to telecoms operators, who would shut down the illegal numbers, and banks, who would close related accounts, Wu said.
Short messaging is extremely popular among Chinese mobile phone users, who surpassed 330 million by the end of 2004. They sent a total of 217.7 billion messages last year.
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