A man who racked up 400,000 yuan ($63,500) for mobile phone charges in one month has won compensation from a shop who installed malware on his phone to incur costs, Guangzhou Daily reported.

A court in Zhongshan city, Guangdong province ruled the mobile phone shop should pay 10,000 yuan ($1,587) in compensation and offer refund.

Mr Huang bought the mobile phone in October 2010 for only 490 yuan ($78), but a month later, he had to pay 400,000 yuan in self-propelled service charges. And after investigation, he found his mobile phone had been installed with malware - malicious software - that was responsible for creating the high charges.

The incident is not an isolated case.

A woman in Hebei province also has to pay for twice as much as her previous mobile phone charge for unknown reasons and a man in Beijing spent 100 yuan in three days despite not using his mobile phone.

Experts warn users to be alert to unknown apps and to install safe software through formal channels, not to click unknown links in short messages or buy unauthorized mobile phones.