XIAMEN - Chinese police cracked more than 24,000 bankcard-related criminal cases during a nationwide crackdown on the offenses, launched in January this year, according to the Ministry of Public Security on Thursday.

The information came from a meeting on the ten-month campaign, held by the ministry in Xiamen, a city in eastern Fujian province.

The campaign targeted forgery, illegal withdrawals and fraudulent online payments, and recovered more than 400 million yuan (about $63 million), according to the ministry.

A total of 927 escaped criminals involved in bank card crimes across the country were seized during the campaign, according to the ministry.

The Ministry of Public Security has set up a nationwide network blacklist of bankcard suspects in order to exchange case information among public security departments at all levels and improve accuracy in cracking down on such crimes.

To raise public awareness, public security departments in the country carried out various publicity activities during the campaign, including organizing more than 1,100 large-scale theme activities, distributing more than 5 million pieces of publicity material and sending text messages to residents to the public.