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
The chief mechanic in an air force unit from which an F-16 and its pilot went missing last week died on Sunday evening in what might have been a suicide, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The ministry in a statement confirmed media reports that the mechanic, surnamed Huang (黃), “hurt himself” at a military barracks. Huang was taken to Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital after he was found unresponsive in the barracks, but doctors could not revive him, the ministry said. Huang served in the 26th Tactical Fighter Group of the 5th Tactical Fighter Wing, the same unit as the missing
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) last night said that it had no comment about reports that a senior US Navy officer had arrived in Taipei for a visit. Several media outlets reported that Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, director of intelligence of the US Indo-Pacific Command, arrived at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) on a special charter flight at about 7pm. The schedule of a “senior US official” in Taiwan would not be made public, the ministry said in a news release, without confirming the visit or the official’s identity. Interactions and exchanges between Taiwan and the US are common, and visits
‘VIRUS DIPLOMACY’: The nation’s expertise in handling COVID-19 was among the reasons that it should not be excluded from the WHO, the European Parliament said The European Parliament this week passed resolutions that support Taiwan’s bid to participate in the WHO and its intention to negotiate a trade pact with Taiwan. During its plenary session from Monday to Thursday, the parliament approved resolutions on the foreign policy consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak and the EU’s trade policy, parts of which were viewed as friendly toward Taiwan by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In a statement yesterday, the ministry welcomed the passage of the resolutions and thanked the parliament for its support for Taiwan. In the first resolution, the parliament cited Beijing’s increasing threats to Taiwan, the crackdown on
NON-TYPICAL: Apart from Atsani, storms in autumn missed Taiwan, rainfall has been lower and average temperatures have been higher, a CWB forecaster said The current water shortage is expected to worsen in the next few months, with the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday forecasting a colder, dryer winter than normal. With winter starting next week, the bureau at a media briefing outlined the expected conditions through February and reviewed autumn’s significant weather events. Weather Forecast Center director Lu Kuo-cheng (呂國臣) said that autumn this year had three major characteristics: First, 13 tropical storms and typhoons formed from September to this month, up from 11 in the same period last year, Lu said. Apart from Atsani, for which sea and land alerts were issued in Taiwan, the tropical
RSS