China issued new judicial rules on Thursday to further intensify its crackdown on high-tech fraud.

The new judicial interpretation, issued jointly by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, mainly targets emerging high-tech scams. In such cases, perpetrators use telecommunications such as short text messages or phone calls under false pretenses to send fraudulent information about lottery prizes, tax reimbursements, credit card services or donations for disaster relief, said Hu Yunteng, a senior official with the SPC.

Once the victims surrender their money or their personal information, the criminals can transfer their illegal gains quickly. The high number of suspects typically involved in each case had previously made investigation and conviction of each suspect in these theft cases difficult, Hu said.

According to the new rules, the suspects can still be convicted and punished for fraud if they send more than 5,000 fraudulent messages or make calls under false pretenses to more than 500 people, even if there is no evidence of the specific amount of their gains.

Those who offer technical assistance, including network services, techniques for fraudulent communications, and related equipment and maintenance, could also face conviction as accomplices if they are found to have acted knowingly, according to the new interpretation.

The interpretation also stipulates penalties for accomplices who run illegal financial businesses and assist in the exchange and transfer of criminal gains with full awareness of the offense.

Penalties will be even harsher for convicts who commit fraud against the disabled or in the name of disaster relief, and those whose offense caused serious harm to the victim, such as suicide or mental illness, the interpretation states.

The high-tech fraud is a "new type" of fraud that has increased notably in recent years, said Sun Jungong, the SPC spokesman.

Last year, China's courts at all levels received 25,642 cases of fraud prosecution and handed down sentences to 32,284 people, up from 16,345 cases and 19,685 people in 2005. A large portion of the cases involved some kind of high-tech fraud, Sun said.