Fact-checking Web site MyGoPen yesterday warned of scams that ask people to give up personal information by filling out fake forms for the government’s Triple Stimulus Voucher program.
Pre-ordering, online and at convenience stores, started on Wednesday for the vouchers, which can be used from Wednesday next week.
MyGoPen said it recently learned that people have been receiving texts stating that the information they provided while pre-ordering was erroneous and provided a link to a Google document for the target to fill out.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
MyGoPen said the text is a phishing attempt to obtain personal information, including names, telephone numbers, dates of birth and images of national identification and National Health Insurance cards.
The Web site said there three flaws in the text that make it easily identifiable as fraudulent, such as in the Mandarin name of the voucher program. The text uses the character chuan (卷), whereas the official government title uses chuan (券), MyGoPen said.
The so-called Google document link does not begin with “https,” used to indicate a secure connection, and the government would not use a generic Google form for people to provide personal information, MyGoPen said, adding that official government Web sites should always end in “.gov.tw.”
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has also posted a warning on its Web site that the government does not use SMS texting to contact individuals and urged people to ignore these texts, should they receive them.
Meanwhile, Chunghwa Post on Friday said it expects large crowds to visit post offices to purchase printed versions of the vouchers.
To facilitate such purchases, the post office said it has increased the number of branches open on Saturday next week and July 25 from 282 to 1,269.
Additional reporting by Cheng Wei-chi
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