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Bank wants long-winded complaints

A 76-character e-mail address for a complaints section at a Bank of China branch in Fujian has been revamped after internet users criticised it for 'erecting obstacles for lodging complaints'.

The e-mail address for the section in Putian was exposed by a microblogger last week.

Pictures were posted online showing a user-friendly complaint number - 95566 - and a user-hostile e-mail address for the public to report fake bank notes, the Beijing Times reported yesterday. The e-mail address was dubbed 'the impossibly longest ever' and became the subject of heated discussion online.

Many internet users said it was bizarre, with one describing it as the 'ultimate test of one's sincerity, patience and persistence'.

'One even needs to watch out for the capital and small letters in the e-mail address and the difference between O and 0,' the user said.

Another said anyone who managed to file a complaint to the e-mail address had 'real talent'. A staff member with Bank of China's anti-counterfeit unit said yesterday they could not confirm the e-mail address. The currency unit of the central bank's Fujian branch could not be reached for comment.

An unidentified bank staff member was cited as saying the e-mail address did exist but had been cut to [email protected].

The long string of characters that appeared in the original e-mail address were computer codes for Chinese characters, the report said.

The staff member said the e-mail address could be read as 'UnionPutian-Fujian.doc' in Chinese within the bank's internal network.

But technical glitches meant the codes appeared after the address was connected to the internet.

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