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.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS