Starting from this month, Taiwan’s telecoms must not allow data roaming for China Unicom Hong Kong’s prepaid card users if the SIM cards they use are not registered under real names, the National Communications Commission said yesterday.
Taiwan’s telecoms are required to follow the real-name system by asking telecom services applicants to present two photo IDs, the commission said.
However, some overseas telecoms sell prepaid cards to people traveling to Taiwan and do not require users to register SIM cards using their real names, it said.
Photo: AP
Such unregistered prepaid cards are also called “BlackBerry” cards and could be exploited by scammers, it said.
Criminal Investigation Bureau data showed that a majority of scammers use China Unicom Hong Kong’s prepaid cards, the commission said.
“We are asking Taiwan’s telecoms to not offer data roaming services for China Unicom Hong Kong’s prepaid card users if their real names are not registered on SIM cards. Telecoms began implementing the policy on Wednesday last week,” it said.
Scammers prefer to use telecom services in Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asian nations, as they are home to many Taiwanese businesspeople, it said.
Stopping data roaming services would prevent scammers from engaging in money laundering through Web banks and increase the cost of committing fraud, the commission said.
Scammers using Wi-Fi would make it even easier for the police to trace their online activities, the commission said.
China Unicom Hong Kong’s users can still use prepaid cards to make calls and send text messages, while data roaming services would be reactivated if their names are registered on the SIM cards, the commission said.
All five major telecoms in Taiwan have signed international roaming agreements with their counterparts in other countries, and the agreements allow two-way roaming services to be suspended if criminal activity is suspected, the commission said.
“In addition to Hong Kong, we are asking telecoms to consider re-examining their roaming agreements within countries in Southeast Asia. The goal is to block the data transmitted through unregistered SIM cards,” it said.
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