National Anti-Fraud Center

Last updated
National Anti-Fraud Center
Other names国家反诈中心
Original author(s) Criminal Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Public Security
Initial releaseMarch 10, 2021
Operating system Android and iOS
Available inSimplified Chinese
Type Fraud prevention
License Proprietary

National Anti-Fraud Center (NAFC) is a Chinese fraud prevention and reporting mobile application developed by the Ministry of Public Security. It was first published in March 2021. The software claims that it can maintain telecommunications network security, create channels for reporting online fraud and raising awareness for fraud prevention. [1] The Chinese government claims that the app can be used to detect possible telecommunication frauds in addition to reporting them, [2] and heavily promotes its installation.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Functionalities

The National Anti-Fraud Center app detects received calls, SMS and downloaded apps, and if suspicious content is found and identified as fraudulent, it will actively warn users. The app also provides a "I want to report" function, which enables users to submit suspicious cell phone numbers, SMS, websites, APPs and other information to the public security department for processing. In addition, the app also pushes articles on fraud prevention to users to promote fraud prevention.

For iOS devices, the app is only available for Apple accounts with China-based locations and cannot be downloaded from accounts in other countries. [3]

Controversies

The app has faced many controversies. Citizens are reportedly forced to install it on their phone despite its excessive permission requests, privacy violations, and identifying and interrogating users who visit overseas financial websites. [4]

Registration for this application requires facial recognition, in addition to scanning the phone for installed applications. [5] It has been reported that citizens in cities like Shenzhen are forced to install it on their smartphone, leading to complaints. [6] [7] [8] [9] Citizens who have visited foreign financial news websites like Bloomberg are reportedly tracked by the app and interrogated by the police. [4] [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Mobile malware is malicious software that targets mobile phones or wireless-enabled Personal digital assistants (PDA), by causing the collapse of the system and loss or leakage of confidential information. As wireless phones and PDA networks have become more and more common and have grown in complexity, it has become increasingly difficult to ensure their safety and security against electronic attacks in the form of viruses or other malware.

Voice phishing, or vishing, is the use of

telephony to conduct phishing attacks.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Industry and Information Technology</span> Peoples Republic of China government ministry

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is the sixth-ranked executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It is responsible for regulation and development of the postal service, Internet, wireless, broadcasting, communications, production of electronic and information goods, software industry and the promotion of the national knowledge economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renren</span> Chinese social networking service

The Renren Network, formerly known as the Xiaonei Network, is a Chinese social networking service similar to Facebook. It was popular among college students. Renren Inc. has its headquarters in Chaoyang District, Beijing, with additional offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Renren had a $740m initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2011.

Trusteer is a Boston-based computer security division of IBM, responsible for a suite of security software. Founded by Mickey Boodaei and Rakesh K. Loonkar, in Israel in 2006, Trusteer was acquired in September 2013 by IBM for $1 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIUI</span> Android-based mobile OS developed by Xiaomi

MIUI is a deprecated mobile operating system by Xiaomi for its smartphones and devices, from 2010 to 2023, prior to the launch of its successor Xiaomi HyperOS.

LeWa OS, also known as Music Frogs and жабка, was an operating system for smartphones, based on the Android mobile platform. Developed by Chinese company Lewa Technology, it was mainly intended for low-cost phones under 1000 yuan. By the end of April 2013, there were more than 2 million users of the system, and by the end of July 2012, they were among the most popular third-party Android-based ROMs in China, together with MIUI and DianXin OS. Lewa was also the first aftermarket Android-based firmware in the world to support the dual-SIM standby feature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance in China</span>

Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese central government to monitor Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although corporate surveillance in connection with the Chinese government has been reported to occur. China monitors its citizens through Internet surveillance, camera surveillance, and through other digital technologies. It has become increasingly widespread and grown in sophistication under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping's administration.

Whoscall is a mobile application that offers caller identification services. It was developed by Gogolook Co., Ltd., a listed company in Taiwan. The function of Whoscall is to identify incoming calls, detect scam/harassment numbers, and filter spam text messages, blocking them accordingly. Its name is derived from a shorter version of the phrase “Who is calling?“. The app currently has over 100 million users, 2.6 billion phone number entries, 25 billion identified number & SMS, and is available in 31 countries/regions, including Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Brazil. The application owns the largest number database in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Whoscall is also the strategic partner of several governmental agencies in their anti-fraud efforts, including the National Police Agency (Taiwan), the Financial Supervisory Service , Fukuoka City Government., Police Cyber Taskforce (Thailand) the Malaysia police and state government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinggu line</span> Proposed railway line in Beijing and Hebei, China

Line 22 (Pinggu line) of the Beijing Subway is a rapid transit line under construction in Beijing and Hebei Province.

Meitu Inc. is a Chinese technology company established in 2008 and headquartered in Xiamen, Fujian. It makes smartphones and selfie apps. Meitu's photo-editing and sharing software for smartphones is popular in China and other Asian countries, attracting 456 million users who post more than 6 billion photos every month. As of October 31, 2016, Meitu's apps have been activated on over 1.1 billion unique devices worldwide. According to App Annie, Meitu has been repeatedly ranked as one of the top eight iOS non-game app developers globally from June 2014 through October 2016, together with global Internet giants such as Alibaba, Apple, Baidu, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Tencent. MeituPic, their top app, has 52 million active daily users and 270 million MAU. On December 15, 2016, Meitu went public on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puffin Browser</span> Web browser

Puffin Browser is a remote browser developed by CloudMosa, an American mobile technology company founded by Shioupyn Shen.

AnyDesk is a remote desktop application distributed by AnyDesk Software GmbH. The proprietary software program provides platform-independent remote access to personal computers and other devices running the host application. It offers remote control, file transfer, and VPN functionality. AnyDesk is often used in technical support scams and other remote access scams.

Transsion Holdings is a Chinese manufacturer of mobile phones based in Shenzhen. It was the largest smartphone manufacturer by sales in Africa in 2017, and also sells mobile phones in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America. Its brands include phone brands such as Itel, Tecno, Infinix; after-sales service brand Carlcare; and accessories brand Oraimo. It manufactures phones in China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and recently in India.

CM Browser is a web browser developed by Cheetah Mobile. The browser is based on Chromium and supports both the WebKit and Trident browser engines. Jinshan Network claims that CM Browser is the first secure dual-engine browser with a "browser intrusion prevention system".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention</span> Public health agency of the African Union

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is a public health agency of the African Union to support the public health initiatives of member states and strengthen the capacity of their health institutions to deal with disease threats. The idea of an African CDC was proposed by the government of Ethiopia in 2013, during a TB/HIV special summit in Abuja, Nigeria. From 2013 to 2016, the modalities and statute of Africa CDC were developed, and the specialized agency was officially launched in January 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selfie culture on Chinese social media</span>

With the spread of smartphones and the rise of social media in China, taking selfies has become a new type of social culture that influences the economy. Selfie culture on Chinese social media has generated the "new form of self-disclosure" that affects the construction of individual identities and the existing beauty standards in Chinese society.

LeaveHomeSafe is a digital contact tracing app launched by the Hong Kong Government on 16 November 2020 to conduct contact tracing in Hong Kong. It can be used as a companion of the Hong Kong Health Code system for registered users.

The criticism of Qihoo 360 refers to various controversies, disputes and similar incidents involving the Chinese Qihoo 360 company.

References

  1. ↑ "One of the world's most popular iOS apps right now was developed by Chinese police". Quartz. 2021-10-15. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  2. ↑ ""国家反诈中心"App正式上线，快来安装吧！". Changjiang Daily (in Chinese (China)). Ministry of Public Security News Center, Henan Province. 2021-04-30. Archived from the original on 2021-05-14. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  3. ↑ Open Tech Fund. "CHINA'S NATIONAL ANTI-FRAUD CENTER - SECURITY ASSESSMENT". Archived from the original on 2023-06-04. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
  4. 1 2 古莉 (2021-09-14). "中国警方利用两亿手机反欺诈APP 识别看境外金融新闻者" [Chinese police use anti-fraud app installed on 200 million phones to identify people who access financial news from abroad]. Radio France internationale. Archived from the original on 2021-10-24. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  5. ↑ 王纳 (2021-03-16). ""国家反诈中心"app正式上线". Guangzhou Daily (in Chinese (China)). Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-04-27. -{您可以在"国家反诈中心"app里快速检测全机已安装应用和未安装应用安装包，精准识别手机内可疑诈骗应用。}-
  6. ↑ Xue, Yujie (2021-04-12). "Anti-fraud app from Chinese police sees soaring downloads amid complaints of forced installs". South China Morning Post . Archived from the original on 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  7. ↑ "多地強制市民安裝反詐騙APP 要求存取大量手機權限及個人資料" [In many places the public is forced to install anti-fraud app, requiring access to a large number of permissions and personal information]. Citizen News (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). 2021-04-22. Archived from the original on 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  8. ↑ "中共推「反詐騙」App逼全民安裝 要求29項權限幾乎可遙控手機" [Chinese Communist Party forces everyone to install its "anti-fraud" app, demanding 29 permissions that it can almost control the phone remotely]. Apple Daily (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2021-04-13. Archived from the original on 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  9. ↑ 何清怡 (2021-04-23). "中國大陸推反詐騙 APP ，被指強制民眾下載、侵犯私隱等，你如何看？". Initium Media (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Archived from the original on 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  10. ↑ Sun, Yu; Liu, Nian (2021-09-14). "China uses anti-fraud app to track access to overseas financial news sites". Financial Times . Beijing. Archived from the original on 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.