A government anti-fraud task force is to unveil measures within one month to combat the increasing prevalence of cybercriminals posing as public figures to run investment scams, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
Chen announced the timeline when asked by lawmakers during a plenary session of the Legislative Yuan whether the government was fully committed to fighting fraud.
The government is sincere and determined to combat fraud, Chen said, adding that cases have increased around the world during the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
In the meantime, Chen urged people to remain alert and dial the 165 anti-fraud hotline to report suspected incidences of fraud.
The government has sought assistance from international firms including Alphabet and Meta to help combat online fraud, Chen and Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧) said.
However, the details on the arrangements, including reviews and removal of online information suspected to be fraudulent, still need to be ironed out, Huang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) said she had received numerous reports of online scammers posing as public figures — with TV talk show hosts Hsia Yun-fen (夏韻芬), Betty Wu (吳淡如) and Shen Chun-hua (沈春華) among those impersonated — to defraud people using phony investment schemes.
The public figures were even forced to get fingerprinted and file a police report, Lee said.
“Do we have to put up with this kind of treatment in Taiwan?” she asked.
The task force was established in July last year by then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei
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