A consumer advocacy group yesterday criticized Chunghwa Telecom Co (
Chunghwa Telecom has suspended service for 12,097 phone numbers this year as victims reported that these had been used for swindling schemes. While the figure was down from the 17,670 recorded last year, it still placed the telecoms service provider at the top of the list in the landline phone market, statistics provided by the Consumers' Foundation (
Far EasTone, the nation's second-biggest mobile phone service operator, has cut off 22,902 phone numbers this year, including 14,433 provided by KG Telecommunications Co (和信電訊), which Far EasTone acquired in 2003.
"If telecom operators continue to fail to act as a good gatekeeper and filter these fraudsters' phone calls from the very beginning, we do not rule out mobilizing consumers to boycott these operators," foundation chairman Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏) said yesterday.
Official data showed that last year, an average of 2.83 victims per day reported being deceived by these phone scams and 1,681 consumers per day reported receiving calls from such groups. The number of victims this year rose to seven a day, with approximately 1,637 consumers every day complaining about phone scams.
The amount of money swindled surged from NT$257.7 million (US$8 million) last year to NT$656.1 million year to date, the foundation said.
The foundation also slammed Chunghwa Telecom for charging users an additional NT$30 per month if they apply for call-filtering services. The foundation estimated that Chunghwa Telecom makes an extra NT$242.3 million per month from the service.
Chunghwa Telecom yesterday said it has yet to find a more effective way to filter fake phone calls, a majority of which originates overseas.
The company said in a press statement that the call-filtering services it provides allow users to block phone calls from unidentified sources, international calls and blacklisted numbers.
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