Qihoo 360 blocks flood of Singles Day spam

China's largest internet security provider, Qihoo 360, said it protected consumers from 1.89 billion nuisance calls in the run-up to Singles Day on Saturday.

Singles Day, the world's biggest one-day shopping festival, is held annually on Nov 11.

Chinese consumers spent 168.2 billion yuan ($25.3 billion) on platforms operated by e-commerce giant Alibaba this year, so it's unsurprising they attracted unwelcome attention.

In a report released on Monday, Qihoo said peak activity for its call-blocking software over the past month fell on the day before Singles Day, when almost 80 million calls were intercepted.

More than 70 percent of blocked calls were commercial promotions, the report said, followed by attempts at fraud and ads for real estate.

Spam texting also hit peak volume on Friday. Qihoo's report said it blocked 144 million unwanted messages that day.

Unsolicited texts can contain links leading back to so-called phishing websites, aiming to fool consumers into disclosing personal data.

Over the whole month, Qihoo said 958,000 such websites were intercepted and blocked, with 85.6 percent being gambling operations overseas.

"Although the festival is over, consumers should remain vigilant for text messages with security risks," Qihoo said.