Amid a rising number of fraud cases, the Criminal Investigation Bureau yesterday urged the public to double check the identity of “relatives or friends” who ask for money in a telephone call.
Fraudsters cash in on the Lunar New Year holiday by impersonating an acquaintance to ask that a victim transfer them money, with older people making up nearly 70 percent of victims, the Crime Prevention Affairs Division said.
Citing a case, officials said that a Taipei man, surnamed Chang (張), received a telephone call from someone claiming to be the brother of his ex-wife who was in urgent need of cash.
Photo courtesy of the Criminal Investigation Bureau
Without verifying the identity of the caller, whose voice Chang said was very similar to his ex-wife’s brother’s, Chang added him to his Line app and transfered NT$50,000 to his account, believing that he would be repaid the next day, the officials said.
The next day the caller asked for another NT$30,000 and then became impossible to contact after Chang said that he could not send any more money, leading Chang to suspect that he had been scammed, they said.
In another case, a Kaohsiung man, surnamed Cheng (程), received a telephone call from an unknown number, with the caller claiming to be the husband of Cheng’s granddaughter and that he owed a debt of NT$180,000, and hoped that Cheng could help.
Wanting to help, Cheng visited a bank and wired NT$100,000.
An hour later, the man called again to say that the money was not enough, prompting Cheng to ask his wife to wire another NT$50,000 to the account, the officials said.
Cheng had not realized that he had been scammed until he met his real grandson-in-law at the funeral of a family member, they said, adding that Cheng reported the case immediately after the funeral.
The division urged people to be on the alert for fraud when they receive any phone call or text message requesting money, and not to make any transfer before checking the caller’s identity.
People could decide upon a secret code or term known only to themselves to verify the identity of a caller, the officials said.
Maintaining online security is also important. People should avoid using the same password for multiple accounts and not click on suspicious Web addresses, the officials said.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS