A suspected data breach at the online bookstore TAAZE has caused 230 of its customers to be cheated out of an estimated total of NT$22 million (US$738,540), the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday.
Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 9, TAAZE customers reported to the bureau that they had been scammed after placing orders, the CIB said, adding that 45 of the cases — nearly 20 percent — were reported last week.
For example, a 35-year-old teacher surnamed Hsu (許), after buying NT$930 worth of books, received a call from someone who claimed to be a customer service employee at the online bookstore, the CIB said.
The scammer told Hsu that something had been wrong with his payment and that he had to revise it through a banking app.
Telling Hsu that he had accidentally selected to pay by multiple installments, the scammer made Hsu believe that he would help him undo the selection, while secretly siphoning funds from Hsu’s bank account, the CIB said.
Hsu only realized the scam after losing NT$790,000, it said, adding that a similar method has been used by scammers multiple times.
The CIB said the repeated scams indicate that there are security loopholes in TAAZE’s Web site and that account data had been stolen.
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