100 billion spam phone messages sent in 2011: Survey

Telecom Lead Asia: Nearly one hundred billion spam phone
messages were sent in 2011, according to a survey released by Internet Society
of China.

 

The survey revealed that on average cell phone users
receive 11.4 unwanted messages each week, with 22.6 percent of the total
messages sent in the latter half of 2011.

 

Among them, fraudulent messages top the list. Some 65.2
percent of mobile phone users received false messages saying they had won a
prize; 47.1 percent received messages promoting fake bills and 46.6 percent
received messages pretending to be from the bank.

 

The survey report said that more than 10 billion were
intercepted by the security software 360 mobile phone guard for 70million
users. It’s estimated that 100 billion spam messages harassed China’s one
billion mobile phone users in the past year.

 

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
issued a notice on March 27 launching a three month campaign to screen group
delivery services that send spam messages and demanded mobile phone operators
strengthen filtering systems.

 

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