Numerous local government agencies have made it mandatory for their employees and individuals with whom they work, such as students and tenants, to use a new anti-fraud app, which is spying on its users.
Chinese citizens are getting hauled up to the local police office for questioning after accessing financial news services abroad, including «Bloomberg,» because of an anti-fraud app on their devices, according to a report in the «Financial Times» (behind paywall) on Tuesday.
The app, downloaded on over 200 million phones since its launch in March this year by the public security ministry’s National Anti-Fraud Centre, blocks suspicious phone calls and reports malware. According to police, it was launched to combat a surge in fraud, often perpetrated by overseas operations managed by Chinese and Taiwan nationals.
But users are being asked asked about they online reading habits, and whether they have contacts abroad and regularly peruse overseas websites. «Bloomberg» was among websites labelled by the app as «highly dangerous.»
Surge in Fraud
The app requires users to allow live-monitoring of call logs, text messages and conversations. Within the first three months of its launch, the app issued 23 million alert messages.
«FT» noted the surge wire or online fraud in China, citing official data – some 361,000 people were arrested last year, compared with 73,000 arrests in 2018.
