A newly established personal identification information database went online on Saturday to help citizens expose fraudsters. Guangdong is the first region on the mainland to offer this service, the Guangdong provincial public security bureau (PSB) announced on Saturday.

Citizens can now protect themselves against people whose identities raise suspicion. All citizens need to do is send a mobile phone short message with the person's ID number and name to 10695110. The service will scan its database for the person's particulars and a reply sent with the words "Match" or "No Match".

Citizens can also log on the web site sms.jd5.cn to have a look at the ID card holder's picture. Five yuan is charged for each successful inquiry.

The service, provided by the Ministry of Public Security, aims to curb the rise in fraud cases involving false ID cards.

The database has the information of 380 million people in 75 mainland cities, including 78 million people in Guangdong. It will have the information of all mainland citizens next year.

The service is now open only to China Mobile users. It will soon be available to China Unicom and Little Smart users.

The database service only verifies ID card numbers and does not provide information that might breach the cardholder's privacy, ministry sources said.

(Shenzhen Daily August 22, 2005)