Seven fraud cases linked to the distribution of NT$10,000 (US$322) cash handouts have been discovered over the past few weeks, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said on Wednesday.
As of Monday, 56 advertisements and 50 social media accounts related to cash handout fraud had been removed or suspended, it said.
One case involved a phishing e-mail that led people to a fake version of the government’s cash handout Web site, which resulted in more than NT$50,000 unauthorized credit card transactions, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
Four cases involved scammers posing as prosecutors and the police, involving losses of NT$510,000, NT$840,000, NT$3.2 million and NT$3.67 million, it said.
In two other cases, scammers attempted to seize victims’ bank accounts, but that did not lead to financial losses, it added.
The Ministry of Finance said people who completed registration or are qualified for direct deposit began receiving their cash handouts on Wednesday.
The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday held a hearing with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to report on interagency efforts to combat fraud related to the handout program.
The interior ministry said that on Sept. 11, the National Police Agency instructed precincts to form task forces to monitor and report fraudulent advertisements, text messages, social media accounts and Web sites linked to the handouts.
Police have been working to block sources of fraudulent information and have been investigating such cases, it added.
Between Sept. 12 and Monday, police have removed 56 scam advertisements, suspended 50 accounts and disabled three fake finance ministry Web sites, the interior ministry said.
The digital affairs ministry said it coordinated with other ministries and Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC) to create a rapid blocking system for fraudulent Web sites.
The FSC monitors suspicious Web sites daily and reports them to the National Treasury Administration for verification, it said, adding that if a Web site is confirmed to be fake, the treasury administration instructs the TWNIC to suspend the domain to prevent the public from accessing the Web site.
To prevent scammers from using domains similar to the official cash handout Web site, the center scans URLs daily to detect high-risk domains with names similar to “10000.gov.tw” and 109 domains that could potentially be used for fraud have been pre-emptively registered for one year, the digital affairs ministry said.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
PROCEDURE: Although there is already a cross-strait agreement in place for the extradition of criminals, ample notice is meant to be given to the other side first Ten Taiwanese who were involved in fraud-related crimes in China were extradited back to Taiwan via Kinmen County on Wednesday, four of whom are convicted fraudsters in Taiwan. The 10 people arrived via a ferry operating between Xiamen and Kinmen, also known as the “small three links.” The Kinmen County Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that four of the 10 extradited people were convicted in Taiwan for committing fraud and contravening the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), and were on the wanted list. They were immediately arrested upon arrival and sent to Kinmen Prison to serve their sentences following brief questioning, the office said.
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
RSS