According to the Beijing branch of China Unionpay, a national bankcard information exchange network, it received thousands of inquiries from worried credit card holders about their accounts during the National Day holiday, China Daily reported today.

Worries of high-tech fraud were raised after people received SMS messages on their mobile phones that resulted in requests for information about credit card numbers and passwords.

One Beijing resident named Wang got a message that claimed he had bought items with his credit card that totaled more than 18,000 yuan (US$2,200), though he said he had not used the card.

Anxious, he dialed the number in the message and he was asked to leave his card details for further identification. Later, he found more than 150,000 yuan (US$18,500) had been spent on his card, and when he redialed the number there was no response.

China has more than 370 million mobile phone users, and hundreds of millions of SMS or text messages are sent every day, making it a profitable service.

But subscribers are frequently inundated with unsolicited messages offering anything from sexual services to cheap airline tickets, though there is no official data on the extent of the problem.

"Sending messages with pornographic or false content violates regulations, pollutes society and spreads a very bad influence," China Daily quoted a Ministry of Information Industry official as saying.

Lu from the ministry's Telecom Institute told the paper that the telecom industry regulator needs to expand its oversight of telecom operators and service providers.

The ministry launched a campaign to check telecom operators and service providers early this month, reinforcing the management of access to mobile networks, though the length and precise nature of the initiative were not reported.

(China Daily October 12, 2005)