As many as 25.05 million mobile phone users in 2015 became victims of payment-related viruses in China amid the growing popularity of mobile payment in the country, a report said on Monday.

The report published by Tencent Research Institute said that out of the 16.7 million new mobile viruses in 2015, about 326,000 viruses were related to payment.

About 71 percent of victims were male mobile phone users, most of them aged between 19 and 35.

Residents in Beijing city, Chongqing city，Guangzhou city, Shenzhen city and Shanghai suffered the most in terms of the financial loss from the viruses.