When the Taiwan Lottery was set up, all kinds of fraudulent activity and scams flooded the nation. The anti-fraud hotline 0800-018-110 was launched on April 26, 2004, with the short-form 165 telephone number following on July 1 that year. The 165 hotline has since been responsible for facilitating fraud prevention.
Although the 165 hotline was supported by the Anti-Fraud Ministerial Joint Conference, it was almost overwhelmed by the volume of calls, perhaps due to insufficient equipment, and little headway was made into curbing fraud at the time.
The Financial Telecommunication Joint Prevention Platform was created and following a court interpretation of Article 8 of the Telecommunications Act (電信法), police were given the power to contact telecoms and order them to terminate services to persons suspected of fraudulent activity.
In addition, the Financial Supervisory Commission on April 27, 1995, announced regulations based on Article 45 Clause 2 of the Banking Act (銀行法) that allow banks to take action against accounts used for illegal or irregular transactions.
With these changes, fraud finally began to be brought under control, and from 2006 to 2012, the number of fraud cases was halved from more than 40,000 to about 20,000, with the amount of money defrauded falling to about one-quarter, from about NT$18 billion (US$588.97 million) to NT$4 billion.
However, fraud has resurfaced in the wake of an investment wave over the past few years, with the anonymity of the Internet and communications software making fraud detection even more difficult for police.
Police operating the 165 hotline using 20-year-old equipment cannot keep up with fraud syndicates armed with the latest equipment.
HOTLINE UPGRADES
Irrespective of whether the Telecommunications Act is further amended or its Article 8 is interpreted more widely to reflect the new circumstances, the 165 hotline’s equipment should be upgraded in the following ways:
First, the Taiwan Network Information Center should be included on the joint prevention platform so that specific Web sites can be taken offline and analyzed to prevent fraudsters from obtaining private data through fake sites, such as posing as government agencies distributing money during the COVID-19 pandemic or investment groups, for example by pretending to represent successful entrepreneurs, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) or Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), and providing investment tips.
Second, major social media companies such as Line should be added to the joint prevention platform to enable it to restrict the use of suspected fraudulent accounts when necessary.
For example, according to Article 13 of Line’s Terms of Service, users are prohibited from committing illegal acts, and if this term is breached, the messaging app reserves the right to deactivate accounts under Article 14-2 or “take any other measures Line reasonably deems necessary and appropriate.”
If suspension of an account is deemed too disruptive, the words “this account has been reported as fraudulent” can be added to warn others to take precautions.
If Taiwan is able to upgrade its equipment to punish and deter fraud, there is no reason that it cannot get on top of this problem.
Chuang Chia-wei is a district prosecutor in Miaoli County.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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