The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a slew of bills targeting fraud by raising the penalty for convicted scammers, increasing police surveillance powers and compelling social media platforms to remove scam advertisements.
The bills aim to build a legal framework to aid the government’s fight against fraud, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) told a news conference in Taipei also attended by Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), Ministry of Justice representative Kuo Yung-fa (郭永發) and Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang (唐鳳) after an Executive Yuan meeting.
A proposed anti-fraud bill would define severe fraud as actions that cost victims NT$10 million (US$308,071) or more in losses, the officials said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Severe fraud would be punishable by a sentence of three to 10 years and a fine of up to NT$30 million, they said.
A 50 percent sentencing enhancement would be applied to main offenders if the crime involved three or more co-conspirators, impersonation of government officials or use of deepfake technology, they said.
Repeat offenders would be subject to harsher sentences for each new conviction and lose the possibility of parole on their third jail sentence for committing severe fraud, they said.
The punishment could be lessened or remitted if the offender surrenders before the crime is discovered and returns all ill-gotten gains, the officials said.
Cooperation with authorities resulting in the main offender’s identification could also reduce or remit the penalty, they added.
A separate technological surveillance and protection draft act would empower police to use snooping devices, they said.
Police surveillance is to be governed by increasingly strict scrutiny with privacy violation and power abuse concerns in mind, officials said.
The bill defines conditions in which the use of surveillance devices is acceptable, they said, adding that previous rules governing the destruction of data obtained by snooping still apply.
Authorization of the use of GPS trackers, fake cell towers and thermal imagers or other devices capable of surveillance without physical intrusion would be subject to the least, intermediate and highest levels of scrutiny respectively, they said.
The bundle of bills included amendments requiring foreign-based social media platforms to register and have a legal representative in Taiwan to ensure compliance with measures targeting advertisements for scams, officials said.
Platforms that operate without a legal representative or do not comply with government orders to remove an ad would be subject to a fine of NT$2.5 million to NT$25 million, they said.
Severe breaches of the act could lead to other sanctions, including bandwidth limits and being blocked from the Internet in Taiwan, they said.
The standards for applying the proposed legislation on platforms are to be established administratively and would likely encompass Facebook, TikTok and Google, Tang said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS