The Legislative Yuan today passed amendments to the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法) aimed at reducing telecom fraud.
The new amendments require second-level Internet access service providers and mobile virtual network operators to register as official telecommunications businesses.
Within one year of the new regulations going into effect, entities that fail to register would face fines of between NT$100,000 and NT$1 million (US$3,386 and US$33,858) and be given a deadline to comply.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Failure to meet the deadline would result in repeated fines.
The legislation affects businesses that provide users Internet access, as well as those that lease or purchase phone numbers and networks to then sell their own services to users.
The amendments are necessary because the Telecommunications Act (電信法) was in 2020 replaced by the Telecommunications Management Act, which did not have the same regulations, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪) said.
The former act had regulations in place that covered Type II businesses, which are administered by the National Communications Commission, while such regulations were removed from the current act, Huang said.
The goal was to encourage more innovative business models in Type II telecommunications and to develop a wider range of services to stimulate economic activity, but instead, the relaxed regulations allowed fraudsters to exploit loopholes in the system, he said.
Since the repeal of the original law in 2020, the number of fraud cases investigated by prosecutors has risen dramatically, Huang said.
In 2021, there were 98,256 cases of telecom fraud, with the number increasing to 160,803 in 2022, 229,711 in 2023 and 167,932 last year, he said.
The new amendments are a way to reduce fraud using Type II services and telecom fraud more generally, he added.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS