A New Taipei City man who has “A123456789” for his national identification number on Friday thanked law enforcement agencies for “leaving him alone,” after having been summoned for years for crimes committed by people who unwittingly used his number and stole his identity.
Hsieh Tiao-ken (謝條根), 63, said that he has had to visit police stations and prosecutors’ offices more than 100 times for crimes he did not commit due to his peculiar ID number.
Government agencies used to provide “A123456789” as the ID number in instructions showing people how to apply for a new ID or National Health Insurance card until 2005, when the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported Hsieh’s story and government officials learned that it was someone’s number.
Photo provided by a reader via CNA
With the popularity of the Internet, he increasingly got caught up in identity theft cases, Hsieh said, citing fraudulent e-commerce sellers who used his ID number to register on shopping platforms.
His number has most often been misused in the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) ticket-booking system — possibly because people would use his number in a “trial run” to see how the Web page worked, but then forget to cancel the ticket reserved under his number when buying a ticket under their own, Hsieh said.
The sheer number of times that he failed to claim booked tickets drew the TRA’s attention, Hsieh said, adding that during one period, his record was receiving one or two notices or warnings per week from various agencies.
The worst time was when a teenager falsely reported his ID number to police after paying for sex, which infuriated his wife and almost touched off a “family crisis,” he said.
His identity has been stolen so many times that his credit rating has been destroyed, making it impossible for him to get a bank loan, Hsieh said, adding that he even had to use his wife’s name on his mobile phone contract.
However, three years have passed since he received an agency notice or warning, because most of those in charge know that he is a long-time “victim,” instead of a “repeat offender,” he said.
New Taipei City Household Registration Service director Yan Yao-ming (顏耀明) said that people whose ID number ends in 4, or contains three or more 4s, can apply for a new number.
In Mandarin, the pronunciation of “4” is similar to “death.”
Although Hsieh does not qualify, the government could make a special exception for him, as his number has obviously caused him considerable trouble, Yan said.
However, Hsieh has declined the offer, saying that at his age, he has made peace with his ID number, and changing it would involve the ordeal of needing to update it on too many documents.
“I might as well just stick with it, but I also hope that people would stop using this number,” he added.
Lawyer Huang Sheng-wen (黃勝文) said that people whose credit rating suffers as a result of identity theft can show proof of their innocence to judicial authorities and get back what they are legally entitled to.
Additional reporting by CNA
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
RSS