From Monday next week, businesses must be registered on telecoms’ “white lists” before they can send text messages containing Web links or phone numbers, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The measure aims to curb scams through text messages, the commission said.
Article 2 of the Fraud Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例) authorizes telecoms to improve anti-fraud mechanisms for commercial text messaging.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
As of last month, more than 400,000 fraud-related text messages had been distributed this year, NCC data showed.
As a text message can contain no more than 80 Chinese characters, many scammers send targets to Web pages by including links, some of which are shortened to hide their destination, NCC Secretary-General Huang Wen-che (黃文哲) said.
Businesses must from Monday next week apply with telecoms if they want to include Web links and phone numbers in commercial text messages, Huang said.
Once their applications are approved, they must register the links and phone numbers that would be included in their text messages, he said.
Only messages containing those registered links and phone numbers would be distributed, he said.
Businesses must reapply if they want to change the registered information, he added.
The content of all commercial text messages would be subject to scrutiny, and telecoms should not deliver messages that contain unregistered links and phone numbers or come from businesses that have yet to secure approval to send messages, Huang said.
Telecoms should expedite delivery of text messages sent from reliable corporate customers, he said.
As for potential scams committed through text messages sent by individuals, Huang said that while those are protected by the constitutional right of freedom of correspondence, individuals would not be able to send more than 50 text messages per day, and would be subject to criminal penalties if they were found to have used text messages to commit fraud.
In other news, Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) told lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee that starting next year online advertising platforms are to adopt a real-name system to regulate advertisers in order to curb fraud.
The ministry has rolled out a series of supporting measures since the Fraud Hazard Prevention Act entered into force in July. One of them is to require Google, Line, Meta and TikTok to take down fraudulent advertisements within 24 hours after being notified. Advertisers on the platforms must use their real names to register.
Several government-funded banks and corporations have said they would pull their ads from large digital platforms that do not require advertisers to register using real names.
“All large digital platforms are adjusting their systems to comply with anti-fraud regulations,” he said. “The real-name system would first apply to high-risk advertisers, such as those that feature celebrities in their advertisements or run large quantities of advertisements,” he said.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as