Many people have been surprised after finding that most mobile service providers charge a fee for calling the 165 anti-fraud hotline, with some saying they consider the fee fraudulent in itself.
People can call the 165 anti-fraud hotline from their cellphone or land line to report suspected fraudulent phone calls to the police. The central government launched a massive campaign to advertise the hotline.
However, what most people don’t know is that they may be charged a fee of around NT$3 per minute when they dial the 165 hotline if they make the call from their cellphones.
“I thought it would be free because it’s a service provided by the government to the people, and we already pay taxes to the government,” said Chien Ling-yuan (簡玲媛), a company manager. “It’s the government’s job to protect us from crimes. Why should we pay extra money when we report a case to the police?”
“Charging the fee is like a government-endorsed fraud,” she added.
Another woman living in Taipei County, Chu Ya-yu (朱雅玉) expressed a similar view.
Chu said that though she wasn’t sure if the 165 hotline is toll-free, she would naturally think that all government service hotlines are toll-free unless otherwise stated.
“The government repeatedly advertises the hotline, but never told us there’s a charge — isn’t this a fraud and an attempt to benefit mobile service providers?” she said.
Meanwhile, a 28-year-old man living in Taipei City, Yeh Yun-yin (葉雲印), also thought that the 165 hotline should be completely free of charge, because “when we report a case to the police, we’re doing our part to prevent others from becoming victims.”
Although Chunghwa Telecom is the only mobile service provider that does not charge for calls to the 165 hotline, its spokesman Shih Mu-piao (石木標) told the Taipei Times that most mobile service providers charge callers because 165 calls also take up network resources.
“From a business point of view, you can’t really say it’s wrong for businesses to charge the users,” Shih said.
He said some numbers such as the 110 police hotline and the 119 fire department hotline are toll-free because all mobile service providers agreed that they should not charge for life-saving hotlines.
Shih said Chunghwa Telecom makes 165 toll-free because the company considers it a way to fulfill its corporate social responsibility.
“Some other numbers, like Taipei and Kaohsiung City Governments’ 1999 service number, are toll-free because the city governments pay for them,” he said. “It looks like the only way to make the 165 hotline completely free of charge is to have the government pay for it.”
Asked about the charge, Criminal Investigation Bureau director-general Frank Chiu (邱豐光) said the National Police Agency had no plan to extend its budgets to cover the 165 hotline phone calls, but it is trying to negotiate with other mobile service providers to make the hotline toll-free for everyone.
“I’d say the negotiation is not easy, but we’re trying,” he said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
RSS