Lin Weixiong, deputy director general of the Guangdong provincial department of public security, made the remarks at a news conference in Guangzhou, capital of the province, on Tuesday.

He hinted that more special campaigns would soon be launched to fight telephone fraud, but did not reveal specific details.

Zhang Rui, political commissar of the department's criminal investigation bureau, said that in years gone by, fraudsters would trick their victims into thinking they were police officers, or representatives of the procuratorates or courts.

"But now they mainly use Trojan viruses and ask their victims to scan a QR code, or pretend to be from a government department and issue a notice, asking their victims to provide verification codes so that they can steal their personal information," said Zhang.

"It is hard for an ordinary resident to realize that he or she is being defrauded over the phone when the culprit can correctly tell his or her name, age, job title and their entire family background."

In a recent operation, code-named Jufeng 2017, Guangdong police worked in cooperation with their counterparts from Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Shanghai municipality to break up six gangs that had been involved in identity theft.

Officers detained 138 suspects based in 14 hideouts, seizing more than 100 million pieces of personal data that had been stolen.

Lin promised to step up cooperation with the department's counterparts in other countries and regions in the coming months, as investigations revealed that a lot of telephone fraud emanates from overseas.

A joint operation to fight such fraud will be launched this month in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Lin said.

"The continuous efforts jointly made by police from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao led to big reduction in the number of telephone fraud cases reported in the regions last year," he added.