Harassing phone calls from city plague 2m
Print Edition
ANNOYING cold calls and telephone scams originating in Shanghai have affected more than 2 million people across China since last month, the country’s biggest online security provider said yesterday.
Nuisances include advertising and real estate sales pitches, together with outright scams to cheat householders.
Some 1.6 million people have been harassed by some 7,000 mobile phone numbers based in Shanghai since April, while 530,000 people have been plagued by landline numbers in the city, the Qihoo 360 Technology Co said following a survey.
“Shanghai has fewer harassing phone numbers compared to Guangdong and Henan provinces, but those from Shanghai can reach larger numbers of phone users,” the company said.
Harassing phone calls are most active between 8am and noon and 4pm and 9pm, and reach a peak on Tuesdays, the survey said.
A single local phone number has been blocked by the company’s software 100,000 times, said Qihoo 360.
Over half of the calls in the survey are intended to cheat money from householders through ringing once and then hanging up.
If the recipient calls back they are charged, said Zhu Yipeng, a mobile phone security expert.
Some 21 percent of the calls are advertisement for products and real estate deals, Zhu said.
“I receive about 30 calls from real estate agents every day after I asked two local agents to sell my apartment and bought a new one,” said a local resident surnamed Li.
Another 18 percent of calls are from con artists asking for money to be paid into their bank accounts.
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