Quite a few lawmakers have recently received scam messages on Facebook, which said that “the prosecutor has been secretly investigating your spending on assistant hiring,” and attached a QR code linked to a closed social media group, saying that it could provide help to hide the money flow.
This fake-prosecutor story has become scammers’ newest trick, and its victims even include veteran actress Tan Ai-chen (譚艾珍), who was made to believe that to assist a police investigation, she must abide by the principle of “secrecy of criminal investigation,” and ended up with transferring money to the scammers without first discussing it with anyone, even her family. Fortunately, thanks to the police’s proactive moves to spot the potential victims and swift action, Tan was prevented from making further withdrawals and payments.
Fraud continues to evolve, using all kinds of innovative techniques. Given the challenge, how should we protect ourselves and do our part in the fight against fraud?
In fact, despite the secrecy of a criminal investigation, no judicial authority would tell you privately that it is investigating you and ask you to “transfer money to a supervised bank account,” or ask you not to tell your family about it. Rhetoric like this is a typical sign of fraud. Once you come across such a situation, you should go to the police or call the 165 hotline.
“Whenever there is someone who claims to be a prosecutor contacting you, it is a fraud,” wrote actress and writer Gin Oy (歐陽靖), Tan’s daughter, in her Facebook post. It is indeed the key concept for protecting yourself from fraud.
The main reason global fraud losses remain high is the rampant scam messages on social media. In the past, the “fake prosecutors” and “guess who I am” fake friend call scams were mostly carried out via text message or phone call.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau once caught a scam gang that was found to have spent NT$100 million (US$3,064,571) in mobile phone credit on fraud text messages. Another crime syndicate used AI voice robots to first make test phone calls to select vulnerable people, then follow up with scam text messages. Now these tricks have been transferred to social media.
Not only should the telecom industry play a part in anti-fraud operations to screen out the fraudulent communications, social media should also actively block posts that are obviously scams.
As for the individuals, when hearing key phrases like “do not tell others about it for the sake of secrecy of criminal investigation,” or “supervised bank account,” you should sound the alarm and return to reality, and then go to the police or call the 165 hotline for advice — these actions do not violate investigative secrecy.
If you encounter “little secrets that cannot be told” on the Internet or other platforms, you need to seek the help of the police — just go to the nearest police station. Police officers should be empathetic, patient and attentive to help people dispel their fears or illusions.
Lin Shu-li is a police officer.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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