The National Health Insurance (NHI) Administration yesterday urged the public to be cautious about telephone scams, after it received more than 14,000 calls over the past three-and-a-half months from members of the public asking about suspicious calls they had received.
According to the administration, callers pretending to be from the agency contact potential victims, telling them their National Health Insurance cards have been suspended.
Administration official Tung Yu-yun (董玉芸) said that scammers often tell people they are victims of fraud or that their NHI cards have been suspended, which sometimes would be followed by another caller pretending to be the police, asking the people to transfer money that they say is to be handled by a prosecutor or court, or give cash to an unspecified agency.
Some scammers also try to collect private information from their targets, the agency said.
Since June 7, the administration no longer suspends NHI cards, even if people fail to pay their insurance fees, it said, adding that it would not contact people via telephone, text message or messaging apps such as Line to inform them about payment issues or fraud.
The agency urged the public to be cautious if they receive telephone calls of this nature and to not follow callers’ instructions.
People can call the administration’s toll-free hotline (0800-030-598) to confirm their status or the 165 anti-fraud government hotline if they receive a suspected scam call, the agency said.
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