The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) warned people about e-mail scams disguised as official e-mails from the agency about filing income tax online, which might contain harmful computer viruses and false information.
This is the first year that taxpayers in Taiwan can use their pre-registered National Health Insurance Card to file their income tax online.
Agency senior administrative officer Chen Mei-shing (陳美杏) said the subject line of the fake e-mails either read “Online tax declaration — easy way to set the National Health Insurance Card and registration code” or “Time to declare your tax — two easy steps to file your tax with the National Health Insurance Card,” with the sender claiming to be the “Ministry of Health and Welfare’s NHIA underwriting section.”
“The e-mail contains an attachment file. When the recipient opens the attachment file, it would lock up the computer and a page would show up saying the user must pay NT$60,000 to unlock the computer,” Chen said.
“Our promotion e-mail does not have attachment files, so this is the easiest way to tell [whether the e-mail is fake],” she said.
People receiving similar e-mails with attachment files should not click on the links and immediately delete the e-mail, she said.
Chen said the agency has sent out many National Health Insurance Card tax declaration promotion e-mails between March and last month. It also sent out 500,000 e-mails about successful card registration, but the e-mails do not have attachment files.
To date, the agency has only received one complaint about the e-mail scam and is investigating the matter, Chen added.
People who have questions about e-mails claiming to be from the agency can call the toll-free number 0800-030598 for confirmation.
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