Nearly 30 percent of migrant workers in Taiwan have been targeted by financial fraud, with each person losing an average of NT$7,995, a survey released on Thursday by Taipei Fubon Bank and non-governmental organization One-Forty showed.
The survey was conducted in June and July among migrant workers from Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand in 21 administrative regions, garnering 564 valid responses, One-Forty cofounder Kevin Chen (陳凱翔) said.
Among the respondents, 27 percent said that they had been scammed while working in Taiwan, with 15 percent among those defrauded more than twice, the survey showed.
Photo: CNA
Workers lost an average of NT$7,995, it showed.
That is a significant amount of money, because the average monthly salary of the respondents was NT$24,280, Chen said.
The three most common fraud schemes were people pretending to be friends or family needing to borrow money (15.7 percent), false money transfer services (11.7 percent) and fake online shopping Web sites (10.6 percent), the survey showed.
Migrant workers were most likely to be scammed by fake money transfer services during holidays when remittance services are closed or when a their residency was being renewed, Chen said.
One-Forty was told of an incident involving an Indonesian worker who has lived in Taiwan for 10 years and lost NT$30,000 after being duped by a fake advertisement on Facebook about a money transfer service that would not require him to present identification documents, Chen said.
One out of every 10 migrant caregivers had witnessed their care recipient being scammed, he said, citing the survey.
Educating the 240,000 migrant caregivers working in Taiwan would help prevent at least 20,000 elderly Taiwanese from being defrauded, he said.
About 90 percent of respondents wanted to learn how to manage their money and become more financially independent, the survey showed.
The areas migrant workers wanted to focus on were forming good buying habits, creating a long-term personal finance plan and setting saving goals, it showed.
One-Forty plans to develop a series of online and in-person courses and a Chinese-Indonesian bilingual tabletop game that migrant caregivers can play with care recipients so they can learn how to better manage and safeguard their savings, Chen said.
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