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.


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中国互联网协会日前开展的一项调查显示，我国手机用户深受垃圾短信的困扰，6.25％的用户一周内收到的垃圾短信数竟达到40多条。

这项于上周二公布的调查显示，在全国4721名受调查的手机用户中，有35％的人每周收到5至10条垃圾短信，15％的人每周收到10至20条。根据调查问卷的统计结果，我国的手机用户平均每周收到至少8条垃圾短信。

垃圾短信的主要内容包括商品广告，欺诈类短信，倒卖[屏蔽]、guns的短信、代办各类证件的短信及用户未订阅的短信服务等。

然而，调查显示，只有6.1％的手机用户收到垃圾短信后会向监管部gate举报，近一半的用户不知道如何退订没有订阅的短信服务。

中国移动通信公司副总裁鲁向东说，就连他也难逃垃圾短信的“[屏蔽]扰”。

鲁向东说，为了控制垃圾短信的泛滥，移动运营商应对大量可疑[屏蔽]短信保持高度警惕。另一方面，服务提供商应向用户提供一些如新闻、电子书和电视节目等内容更加健康的信息服务。

为了治理垃圾短信泛滥的问题，我国四大移动运营商--中国移动、中国联通、中国电信和中国网通联手新浪网、搜狐网等14家服务提供商于上周二成立了中国“绿色手机文化”建设联盟。联盟成员做出承诺：不传播不良信息和非法信息，并为扫除垃圾短信做出进一步努力。

据信息产业部的有关数据显示，截至上个月，我国的手机用户数量达到4.49亿，比去年年底增加了5600万。


Vocabulary:


spam text message : 垃圾短信

illegal selling of vehicle : 倒卖[屏蔽]