BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Most of illegal short message service (SMS) cases found in China involve bank frauds, said a spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security which has launched a campaign against illegal SMS since November 1.

    As of Nov. 30, police had received more than 107,000 reports on illegal SMS cases, 56 percent of which were sent by people in the name of banks, said Wu Heping, spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security.

    "In addition, we have blocked 108 bank accounts related with illegal activities using SMS as a tool and confiscated a large number of communications devices," said the spokesman.

    With a clear division of work, people engaging in fraudulent cases buy cell phone numbers with fake ID cards, open new bank accounts and send short messages, in large quantities, to other cell phone users. When they succeed, they withdraw cash from the bank accounts of the victims via ATMs.

    The frauds often lure people with short messages claiming they had won big prizes in a lottery but have to pay a certain sum of money or taxes to cash the so-called prizes which do not exist at all. If the receiptor believe and do as they told, the frauds will withdraw all the money at ATMs in other cities immediately and cancel their cell phone numbers and buy new ones.

    Police in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and Beijing and Shanghai municipalities have received more than 76,000 reports of illegal SMS cases, or 70 percent of the country's total.

    Over the past month, police worked with media in teaching cell phone users to see through the shell game of frauds. Enditem