People whose telecom access has been restricted or cut multiple times due to their involvement in telecom scams would be listed as high-risk users and would be limited to three telephone number applications for three years, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The policy is one of the measures to be implemented by the regulator following the passage of the Fraud Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制法) in July.
The commission has formed a united front to deter telecom fraud with the National Police Agency (NPA), the National Immigration Agency (NIA) and the High Prosecutors’ Office, NCC Secretary-General Huang Wen-je (黃文哲) told a news conference.
Photo: Lin Chih-yi, Taipei Times
To help prevent telecom services from being used to commit fraud or other crimes, the commission is working with telecoms, the NPA and the NIA to develop a system that would allow telecoms to access the NIA database and the NPA’s 165 anti-fraud hotline, Huang said.
The connections are expected to be operational from November, he said.
If telecoms are notified by police that they need to reauthenticate the identity of an applicant, they can use the databases to verify the information, he said.
“If telecoms are notified multiple times to stop or restrict a user’s access to services due to their involvement in telecom fraud, the nation’s three telecoms must list the user as ‘high risk,’ meaning they would only be allowed to apply for one telephone number or one service from each company for three years,” he said.
The NCC is discussing with NPA officials how many times the telecoms should be notified before they can blacklist a user, Huang said, adding that the matter should be finalized before the end of this year.
Although the measure would not prohibit high-risk users from applying for services from more than one provider, they can expect many questions whenever they apply, NCC officials said.
The act would also tackle fraud arising from the abuse of international roaming services offered by high-risk offshore telecom operators.
People need not use their real names to purchase roaming services online, also known as blackberry cards, nor do they always need to present two forms of identification.
The act requires telecoms to verify whether the person who seeks to activate an international roaming service actually enters Taiwan, and they can do so by accessing the NIA’s database, Huang said.
The NCC is assessing the criteria it would use to determine whether an offshore telecom is a high-risk operator, including the number of times their services are used to commit fraud and whether they sell prepaid services without requiring two forms of ID.
To properly address disputes arising from the use of international roaming services, Huang said that the commission would take into consideration whether the country where a potential high-risk offshore telecom is based in has a mutual legal assistance deal with Taiwan.
“We would also monitor if the services offered by the high-risk offshore telecom were implicated in fraud reported in other countries or by international organizations,” he said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
RSS