The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said no data breach was involved in the nation’s first known instance of credit card fraud involving Apple Pay since the service was introduced in the local market in March.
While Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) had said that their customers had reported credit card fraud, the lenders’ systems, as well as those of the US tech giant, remained secure, the commission said.
Huang Chao-kang (黃照岡), using the alias “Huang Chi” (黃琪), befriended bank customers in online chat rooms and convinced them to divulge personal information, the commission said.
Huang allegedly used the information to gain access to bank accounts, altering settings so that their credit cards were linked to his smartphone and mobile phone number, the commission said, adding that Huang had made about 30 purchases totaling NT$70,000 (US$2,314).
As Huang had used personal information supplied by the customers, he could get past verification checks to take advantage of Apple Pay, which does not require signature verification with each purchase.
Both banks issued statements saying that they have fixed changes made to the customers’ accounts.
Local media reported that Huang is a habitual fraudster who is adept at pretending to be a member of a prominent family or claiming ties to celebrities to gain trust.
Huang’s targets include former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 2008.
Huang was arrested on Thursday evening at his home in New Taipei City and has been charged with fraud and forgery.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau said its probe has revealed that several other local banks were also targeted, but were reluctant to make reports out of fear that Apple would revoke their rights to operate Apple Pay and that their reputation would be tarnished.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained