The People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, Friday asked merchant banks to warn all card-holders to be wary of bank card fraud via text messages or phone calls.

Recent crimes have often been linked to fraudulent text messages (SMS) that tell handset users that they have spent a certain amount of money and leave a phone number for inquiries.

When the users call, fraudsters posing as bank officials ask the user for their bank card number and password or tell them to transfer their money to other accounts, the PBOC explained.

To fight the frauds, the PBOC also asked merchant banks to limit their daily ATM cross-bank transactions to a certain degree and cooperate with the police in fraud investigation.

Bank card and credit card users who receive suspicious payment information should not call back the phone number given or transfer money to strange accounts, the PBOC advised. Instead, they should contact the card-issuer and report to the police.

Source: Xinhua