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.
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