The National Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday passed draft measures requiring telecoms and telecom service retailers to observe the “know your customer” principle when handling applications.
The measures were an upgrade from a set of guidelines issued last year to curb rising telephone fraud committed through local mobile phone numbers, the NCC said.
Based on the draft measures, mobile network operators would be required to verify the identities of corporate customers before assigning numbers by having a list of corporate account users, asking each user to present two identification documents and the purpose of using the numbers, verifying office locations and signing users’ affidavits, the commission said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Telecoms can dispatch personnel to visit their corporate customers to verify the information provided, it said.
Telecoms would be given one year after the measures take effect to correct any erroneous or incomplete information of their corporate customers, it said.
The “know your customer” principle applies to telecoms and retailers selling their services in stores or online, the commission said.
E-commerce operators are asked to jointly deter fraud by asking sellers on their platforms to prove they are certified telecom retailers. Service information they post should include their identity and a service agreement.
Telecoms should ask online platform operators to take down a telecom service or restrict view to it if the service information is false, according to the draft measures.
Meanwhile, NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said the draft regulations on the prevention and control of fraud proposed by the Ministry of the Interior would curb fraud committed through international roaming prepaid cards.
The problem was exposed after 25 Telecom (二五電訊) was found to have illegally sold international roaming prepaid cards, some of which were implicated in a fraud investigation conducted by the Yunlin Prosecutors’ Office.
“If you are in Taiwan, you should be using a local phone number rather than an international prepaid card,” Wong said.
“We will first announce a list of high-risk overseas telecom operators whose numbers are frequently related to fraud cases. The draft act, once passed, would allow us to work with the National Immigration Agency to check the arrival and departure database to see if people using high-risk international prepaid cards are in Taiwan or other countries,” he added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and