Nearly 70 percent of Taiwanese encountered a telephone or Internet scam last year, up from 65.9 percent in 2023, a National Communications Commission (NCC) survey showed.
Only 29.2 percent of people polled reported that they never encountered such a scam.
The proportion of fraud cases carried out over mobile phones rose from 81.1 percent in 2023 to 83.5 percent last year, while scams carried out using landlines increased to 40.5 percent from 32.6 percent in 2023, the survey showed.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
The use of instant messaging apps and social media platforms for fraudulent activities is also rising, it showed.
Telecom fraud continues to occur through bogus international calls and scam text messages, NCC Secretary-General Huang Wen-che (黃文哲) said.
However, criminals are shifting their activities to online platforms, he said.
Last year, the commission worked with telecoms to introduce voice alerts for international calls and implement a code system for short message services (SMS), Huang said.
Private companies can apply for the commercial SMS code service to help their customers identify the authenticity of text messages, he said.
The commission also urged telecoms to implement a know your customer (KYC) risk management mechanism, he said, adding that a horizontal communication channel has also been established between telecoms and government agencies.
That has allowed telecoms to connect to databases of the 165 Anti-Fraud Joint Risk Management System and the National Immigration Agency, so that operators can conduct real-time checks during the number registration process to detect irregularities, he said.
Noncommercial SMS users who send a large volume of messages in a single day would have their services temporarily suspended and would be required to undergo KYC verification before they can resume sending messages, Huang said.
A total of 7.98 million text messages were blocked last year, along with 9.22 million international scam calls, NCC data showed.
Last year, 2,395 telephone numbers were suspended and 159.48 million anti-fraud alert messages were sent, the commission said.
Between March and December last year, SMS sending functions of more than 35,000 mobile numbers were disabled, of which more than 10,000 were reinstated after completing identity verification procedures, it said.
To combat telecom fraud, the NCC in November last year implemented a three-strike policy, restricting high-risk users from applying for new telecom services. As of mid-March, 537 high-risk users have been blocked.
Under the three-strike policy, people who are reported by judicial or law enforcement agencies for involvement in telecom fraud three times would, for the next three years, be limited to registering only one phone number or telecom service with any single telecom.
Huang Tien-yang (黃天陽), deputy director of the NCC’s Department of Platform and Business, said the three-strike policy and data integration measures have transformed anti-fraud efforts to a collaboration between the public and private sectors.
A total of 537 users have been denied new telecom services by providers after meeting the criteria of the three-strike policy, and the results so far appear to be effective, he said.
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