Bank losses from the most common form of credit card fraud, account takeovers, as well as from stolen credit cards, jumped to four-year highs in August.
There were 58,809 cases of account takeovers reported, accounting for NT$234.75 million (US$7.63 million) in losses, while losses from stolen cards jumped to NT$3.22 million, National Credit Card Center (NCCC) data released on Monday last week showed.
However, “it seems that the number of cases [of stolen cards] is rising, as well as the amount,” a center official told the Taipei Times yesterday.
There were 245 transactions involving stolen cards in August, the second-highest this year after March’s 380 cases, center data showed.
The cards stolen in August were used to make purchases or obtain cash advances, the official said.
The average amount of fraudulent transactions that month was NT$13,145, an increase of 15 percent from NT$11,438 in July, the data showed.
These cases involved cards that were stolen, not those which did not reach consumers before being used, which the center considers to be another type of fraud, the official said.
The non-profit center, which was established in 1983 as the National Debit Card Center before becoming the NCCC in 1988, collects data from the 36 card issuers in Taiwan and issues monthly tallies.
It divides credit card fraud into eight types. Losses from stolen cards ranked fourth last year, after account takeovers, counterfeit cards and lost cards, center statistics showed.
While the losses from stolen cards seldom surpassed NT$2 million per month in previous years, the number reached NT$2.29 million in March, but fell to NT$738,331 in April and averaged about NT$1 million from May to July, the data showed.
The spike in August was caused by a thief who used a stolen card to make more than NT$1 million in purchases, a Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) official surnamed Liu said yesterday by telephone.
Thieves can also use stolen credit cards to get cash advances, but it is harder to do so, as they also need a password, the center said.
“You can only try to enter a password three times, and usually people do not display their passwords on their credit cards,” center spokesman Hanover Chu (朱漢華) said.
Given the figures for August, the center would monitor the data from September and last month, and take action if necessary, Chu said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique