106 caught 'jamming cellphone signals'

Shanghai police have this year caught 106 suspects who jammed cellphone signals to send spam messages from illegal mobile stations, officers said yesterday.

A total of 75 stations were confiscated, they added.

Police, working with Shanghai Mobile, have developed new technology to detect signals from illegal stations, they said.

This will cover the whole city soon.

Five suspects held near the Shanghai New International Expo Center in March had bought equipment on Taobao for 20,000 yuan (US$3,198) and sent junk messages to passers-by.

They opened a company offering to send text messages for 10,000 yuan a day for clients, added officers.

While there are no specific laws against sending spam messages in China, the duo were guilty of disrupting public services as their jamming activities denied signals to mobile phone users, said police.

An illegal mobile station includes devices like a laptop and a special battery hooked up in a car with antennae.

They can be bought easily from online shopping platforms.

Mobile stations produce signals stronger than those provided by telecoms operators. Anyone in the vicinity of the stations can receive the signals on their cell phones.

By temporarily disabling official signals, the illegal mobile operators can send messages — usually spam — to nearby cellphone users.