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.
‘ANGRY’: Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of ‘the people of the Republic of China’ experienced disqualified Lai from being president, Ma Ying-jeou said Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II. Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
‘OFFSHORE OPERATIONS’: Also in Dallas, Texas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs inaugurated its third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center to foster closer cooperation The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened on Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and healthcare. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event’s organizer, said the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO; PC brand Asustek Computer; and drone maker Thunder Tiger. In his opening speech, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as US technology companies from Silicon Valley and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster
A 20-year-old man yesterday evening was electrocuted and fell to his death after he climbed a seven-story-high electricity tower to photograph the sunset, causing a wildfire on Datong Mountain (大同山) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林), the Taoyuan Police Department said today. The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was accompanied on an evening walk by a 20-year-old woman surnamed Shang (尚) who remained on the ground and witnessed the incident, capturing a final photograph of her friend sitting atop the tower before his death, an initial investigation showed. Shang then sought higher ground to call for help, police said. The New Taipei