A joint announcement on preventing and fighting telecom and Internet fraud was issued by a group of departments on Sept 23.

The announcement by the Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the People's Bank of China, and the China Banking Regulatory Commission ordered that all telephone accounts must be registered using real identity information by the end of this year.

All telecom service providers must suspend the use of accounts if the user fails to register with real identity information within the prescribed time and are not allowed to open more than five accounts for the same user, it said.

According to the announcement, the period of time needed for money to be transferred from one account holder to another via automatic teller machine will be prolonged to 24 hours starting on Dec 1.

Anyone who voluntarily surrenders himself to a judicial organ after committing a telecom crime and truthfully confesses his crime may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment, and those who refuse to voluntarily surrender themselves by Oct 31 will face harsh punishment according to law, it stated.

The document also urged the police to show initiative and "destroy a number of criminal groups," as well as coordinate with courts and procuratorates to rein in the spread of telecom and Internet fraud.

In addition, it vowed to crack down on the leakage and trade of personal information, and ordered law enforcement to delete, monitor and block Trojan horse viruses and other malicious software and online dissemination of personal information.