China Wages Cell-Phone Campaign Against Crooks

from the whatever-works dept

It's been almsot exactly two years since Dutch police first started experimenting with sending annoying text messages to the mobile phones of thieves. Now, it appears the Chinese police are using a similar tactic. Apparently, some scam-artists in China put up tiny ads offering to help people get fake IDs or fake academic certificates. The police have copied down the phone numbers in those ads and are now bombarding the phones with text messages saying: "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." They claim the tactic has been successful, but I really doubt that anyone is turning themselves in for such a crime. Still, in an increasingly connected world, it's interesting to see how even the relationship between police and criminals are changing.

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