China Mobile Communications Corp, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, is ratcheting up resources to crack down on telecom fraud by leveraging big data and artificial intelligence technologies.

The move comes as instant-messaging apps and illegal telecom technology are increasingly being used to swindle citizens. In 2017, there were more than 596,000 cases of telecom and internet fraud in China, causing economic losses of 13.1 billion yuan ($1.9 billion), according to data from the Ministry of Public Security.

As part of its efforts to address such challenges, the Zhejiang provincial branch of China Mobile has developed a big data anti-fraud system, called Tiandun or Sky Shield in English. The system is equipped with machine learning technologies. Based on details of a large number of fraud cases provided by police departments, Sky Shield can recognize fraudulent communication behavior, differentiate it from normal calls and intercept spam calls and texts.

"The system is also capable of identifying what types of users are more vulnerable to telecom spam and warn these users via text messages. Moreover, when it thinks these users are likely to be experiencing fraud, the system will send their phone information to police who will act swiftly to contact them," said Zhang Zhao, an information security expert at the Zhejiang provincial branch of China Mobile.

Since Sky Shield was put into use in August, the accuracy rate of potential victim information sent to police stations is 80 percent, China Mobile said.