China cracking down on cell phone fraud, spam

The much-talked-about move is mainly aimed at users of prepaid cell phone accounts, which can be opened easily by anyone with cash and a handset.

These accounts have no monthly fee, but instead are "charged up" using prepaid cards and used until the credit runs out. The new rules, similar to those already introduced in countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand and Malaysia, will require China’s 200 million users of prepaid service–more than half the nation’s total 388 million subscribers–to register using their real names, according to Xinhua.

Such registration has sparked protests from operators such as China Mobile and China Unicom who complain the shift will require a mountain of extra paperwork. Others say it will impose on individuals’ privacy.

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