"Congratulations! You have won a brand-new laptop in our company's lucky-draw event! Get the reward by calling this number."

This is a typical junk message that sneaks into many people's mobile phones these days. However, such messages are not just a clumsy joke, but in many cases are just a scam aimed at the receivers' pockets.

Starting yesterday, the Shanghai police began to accept tip-offs regarding such text messages in response to the rising number of connected fraud cases.

Police discovered that once hapless mobile users replied to these messages with such offers as a free lunch, for example, the senders would then ask for money for delivery - or in the form of income tax, commission, or deposit. They then disappear after the money goes to the designated accounts.

"Police departments in the city will act swiftly on any reports of such activity," a spokesman for the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau told China Daily yesterday.

The police crackdown on text message traps has the cooperation of local telecommunications operators and banks, according to the spokesman. In cases where a mobile phone sends deceitful messages, the police may notify telecom operators to terminate the sender's service and for banks to freeze the accounts mentioned in the messages.

Messages using mobile phones and accounts opened outside of Shanghai will be transferred to the police authorities in the relevant areas, according to the spokesman.

"We will be very careful in dealing with these messages, in order to crack down on illegal activities and at the same time avoid any infringement on the lawful rights of mobile phone users," the spokesman said.

Perpetrators usually take advantage of illegal technologies that enable them to send a message to hundreds of thousands of mobile phone numbers simultaneously, without showing the senders' whereabouts.

While encouraging the reporting of these text messages, Shanghai police are also warning citizens not to be lured by strange messages offering a panoply of dubious goods and services, ranging from firearms and sex to private detective services.

(China Daily August 18, 2005)