Chinese mobile phone users are being flooded with spam text messages ,with 6.25 per cent of them receiving spam more than 40 times a week, according to a survey by the China Internet Society.

The survey, released on Tuesday, shows that 35 per cent of all 4,721 users questioned across the country receive five to 10 spam messages a week, while 15 per cent get 10 to 20. On average, each user receives at least eight spam messages a week, questionnaires show.

Common junk messages include advertisements, swindles, information on illegal selling of vehicles, weapons or fake diplomas, and short message services (SMS) that users never signed up for.

However, the survey shows that only 6.1 per cent of users have ever appealed to supervisory departments and about half of them do not know how to cancel unwanted SMS subscriptions.

Lu Xiangdong, vice-president of China Mobile Communications Corporation, said even he can't escape from spam messages.

In order to control spam messages, mobile operators should be more vigilant about suspiciously large numbers of text messages from one sender, said Lu. On the other hand, mobile service providers should offer users more healthy content such as news, e-books and TV programmes.

To step up such efforts, China's four major mobile operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Netcom, joined 14 other service providers, including Sina.com and Sohu.com, to establish a "Green Mobile Culture" association on Tuesday. Members promised not to spread unhealthy or illegal information, and make further efforts to wipe out spam messages.

Figures from the Ministry of Information Industry show China had 449 million mobile phone users by last month, 56 million more than that of the end of last year.

spam text message

illegal selling of vehicle

Chinese mobile phone users are being flooded with spam text messages ,with 6.25 per cent of them receiving spam more than 40 times a week, according to a survey by the China Internet Society.

The survey, released on Tuesday, shows that 35 per cent of all 4,721 users questioned across the country receive five to 10 spam messages a week, while 15 per cent get 10 to 20. On average, each user receives at least eight spam messages a week, questionnaires show.

Common junk messages include advertisements, swindles, information on illegal selling of vehicles, weapons or fake diplomas, and short message services (SMS) that users never signed up for.

However, the survey shows that only 6.1 per cent of users have ever appealed to supervisory departments and about half of them do not know how to cancel unwanted SMS subscriptions.

Lu Xiangdong, vice-president of China Mobile Communications Corporation, said even he can't escape from spam messages.

In order to control spam messages, mobile operators should be more vigilant about suspiciously large numbers of text messages from one sender, said Lu. On the other hand, mobile service providers should offer users more healthy content such as news, e-books and TV programmes.

To step up such efforts, China's four major mobile operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Netcom, joined 14 other service providers, including Sina.com and Sohu.com, to establish a "Green Mobile Culture" association on Tuesday. Members promised not to spread unhealthy or illegal information, and make further efforts to wipe out spam messages.

Figures from the Ministry of Information Industry show China had 449 million mobile phone users by last month, 56 million more than that of the end of last year.

spam text message

illegal selling of vehicle