China Mobile's branch in Zhuhai has cancelled the service of 19,000 mobile phone subscribers who have been reported as abusing the short message service (SMS) in the past six months.

Such false messages, trying to get people to give out financial information or send money, have been a popular tool to cheat mobile phone users nationwide.

Last October, the company became the first in China to establish a hot line where people can report junk messages. Users in Zhuhai, in Guangdong Province, could transfer the suspect message texts and the sender's number to 01820.

"Once we get seven or more complaints for one number, we stop its function of sending short messages," said Yang Kaixiong, chief manager for customer service.

"If it can send out more than 100 messages an hour, we cut it off."

Meanwhile, the company also employed 36 people to supervise the contracted Internet service providers (ISP).

The ISPs contracted with China Mobile to provide wireless Internet service to users, but some of them violated rules by sending messages to try to lure users to use their paid services, Yang said.

"If we receive more than 50 complaints concerning the same ISP, we quickly stop the co-operation with the company and report it to provincial headquarters," Yang said.

At least 44 ISPs have been found violating the regulations, and 24 of them were expected to lose their contracts, he added.

However, his company could not take action against ISPs or mobile phone users from outside the province.

"Such isolated efforts can't crack down on illegal SMS senders," said Shen Xiaoli, a mobile phone subscriber in Shenzhen. "Cheaters can be anywhere in the country, so the mobile operators should launch the campaign to cover the entire network."

(China Daily April 11, 2006)