High-tech Targets Illegal ad in East China City

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 23, 2003

High-tech Targets Illegal ad in East China City

Forgers who put up small postersadvertising false information are subject to automatic and continuous blocking phone message in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

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Forgers who put up small postersadvertising false information are subject to automatic and continuous blocking phone message in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

"You have broken the law by posting illegal ads. You must immediately stop this activity and go to the Hangzhou Urban Administrative Bureau for punishment." This is what the forgers will hear whenever they switch on their phones.

The "warning service" system was developed by the bureau to eliminate those illegal posters which appear to be an endless headache in many Chinese cities.

The postcard-sized advertisements stuck on streets and walls promoting such fake paperwork as ID cards or academic certificateshave sprouted rampantly in the country in recent years, especiallyin coastal and developed regions, because they are cheap to put upand hard for the perpetrators to be caught.

Local officials have recorded scores of mobile phone numbers atthe bureau's center for the new system.

"The high-tech system can track multiple telephone numbers simultaneously," said bureau technician Zhang Xuezhi. "The owner'sphones will ring every 20 seconds if they turn on their mobiles."

Now more than half the recorded mobile phones have been blockedby this continuous message bombardment, according to the center.

Callers to the numbers will hear messages like "the number you dial is turned off" or "this service has been stopped."

Ordinary people do not have to worry if their phone number is recorded by mistake, says Wei Yunxiang, a bureau official.

All the numbers listed after bureau officials took photos of the illegal advertisements were being checked by manual telephone,Wei said.

It required the signature of a senior official before a number was "harassed", he said.

"Meanwhile, the system can correct mistakes immediately if residents find their numbers are accidentally recorded," Wei said.

Modern communications technology like mobile phones and the Internet is increasingly used by forgers these days, which has hampered efforts by law-enforcement officials to pin down their whereabouts.

The lack of effective measures to combat the crime in the past used to result in a cat-and-mouse game between the authorities andforgers.

In Hangzhou alone last year, about 800 people were caught in the act of posting these illegal advertisements.

"The new system not only nullifies their illegal advertising, but raises the costs of committing a crime," said Zhao Rongfu, director of the bureau.

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