Pervasive online frauds expose multiple loopholes

Many telecom and information technology companies reap huge profits but ignore their responsibility to take measures to prevent the telecom frauds being committed on their platforms.

In many developed countries, self-regulation plays a leading role in preventing telecom agencies from leaking citizens' personal information.

Besides, the authorities focus on investigating and penalizing culprits in some major cases while ignoring the small ones, which presumably constitute the majority of the telecom frauds across the world.

China's Criminal Law says those responsible for big frauds involving "extremely large amounts of money" or cases of gross violation can be sentenced for life. But the focus on big cases has not helped solve the problem; on the contrary telecom frauds have become rampant, penetrating into almost every field, including both online and offline activities of users.

In China, commercial and public sector agencies both require citizens to provide accurate personal information but fail to protect them.

The Xu Yuyu case shows how important it is for China to enact a personal information protection law, and begin the process of better safeguarding personal information.

And since we don't have a specific law, every person has to learn a whole set of skills to fight or avoid telecom frauds, and many poor college-bound students must prepare for a life-or-death telecom scam test that fraudsters could subject them to after passing the national college entrance exam.

The author is writer with China Daily. liyang@chinadaily.com.cn