The National Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday passed draft measures requiring telecoms and telecom service retailers to observe the “know your customer” principle when handling applications.
The measures were an upgrade from a set of guidelines issued last year to curb rising telephone fraud committed through local mobile phone numbers, the NCC said.
Based on the draft measures, mobile network operators would be required to verify the identities of corporate customers before assigning numbers by having a list of corporate account users, asking each user to present two identification documents and the purpose of using the numbers, verifying office locations and signing users’ affidavits, the commission said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Telecoms can dispatch personnel to visit their corporate customers to verify the information provided, it said.
Telecoms would be given one year after the measures take effect to correct any erroneous or incomplete information of their corporate customers, it said.
The “know your customer” principle applies to telecoms and retailers selling their services in stores or online, the commission said.
E-commerce operators are asked to jointly deter fraud by asking sellers on their platforms to prove they are certified telecom retailers. Service information they post should include their identity and a service agreement.
Telecoms should ask online platform operators to take down a telecom service or restrict view to it if the service information is false, according to the draft measures.
Meanwhile, NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said the draft regulations on the prevention and control of fraud proposed by the Ministry of the Interior would curb fraud committed through international roaming prepaid cards.
The problem was exposed after 25 Telecom (二五電訊) was found to have illegally sold international roaming prepaid cards, some of which were implicated in a fraud investigation conducted by the Yunlin Prosecutors’ Office.
“If you are in Taiwan, you should be using a local phone number rather than an international prepaid card,” Wong said.
“We will first announce a list of high-risk overseas telecom operators whose numbers are frequently related to fraud cases. The draft act, once passed, would allow us to work with the National Immigration Agency to check the arrival and departure database to see if people using high-risk international prepaid cards are in Taiwan or other countries,” he added.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
RSS