With the New Year rapidly approaching, computer experts are warning mobile phone users to be on the alert for virus-laden short messages that may slip into the flurry of friendly and romantic holiday exchanges.

At the start of this year, about 10 billion messages were sent via mobile phones in China, according to Tuesday's Shanghai Morning Post.

The risk of virus infection has grown along with the functions available on mobile phones, such as Internet connection and multimedia messaging services, said the specialists at Rising Technology, a Beijing computer virus protection outfit.

The variety of cellphone viruses has also soared, they noted.

The experts suggest that mobile phone users not download ring tunes, graphics or other information from unknown websites. They should also avoid opening messages that appear in unreadable codes.

Despite the increasing risk of infection, the technical experts said that mobile phone viruses generally have a limited impact, since the different chip designs in handsets prevent in the virus from spreading widely.

Researchers are working on developing virus protection software for mobile phones, they added.

(Shanghai Daily December 7, 2004)