Phishing cases on rise, CIB says

Total losses due to fraud declined last month, but reports of phishing rose substantially, with 505 cases and NT$54.51 million (US$1.71 million) in total losses reported, the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Tuesday. In the same period last year, there were 253 cases and NT$13.05 million of losses due to phishing, data from the CIB’s 165 Anti-Fraud Hotline and online reporting Web site showed. There were 10,652 telecommunications and Internet fraud cases reported nationwide last month, with losses surpassing NT$4 billion, compared with more than NT$6 billion during the same period last year, it said. Photo: CNA Total reports fell by 22.3 percent and losses by 35.1 percent, it added. The public should be wary of suspicious links and remember to “pause, check and then act,” the CIB said at a campaign event headlined by actor Harry Chang (張懷秋). Scammers often send e-mails impersonating e-commerce platforms, government agencies, financial services or logistics companies, and lead people to click phishing links with claims of tax refunds, winning lottery invoices or unpaid traffic fines, it said. Once clicked, the links can allow scammers to steal data, including credit card information, it said. Recent phishing cases have tended to be fake telecommunications and transportation payment notifications claiming that points or rewards were about to expire or that parking fees had not been paid, it said. Other common methods include impersonating retailers on online shopping platforms such as Shopee and Momo with claims of abnormal orders, refunds, duplicate orders or membership information update requirements, it said. Scammers might also falsely advertise themselves as travel or immigration application services such as Thailand’s Digital Arrival Card, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization in the US or the UK’s Electronic Travel Authorization, it added. Phishing e-mails or URLs usually contain words that are similar to what official channels use, the CIB said, adding that people should close pages that seem suspicious and open official sites via a manual search or by typing the correct URL, or they should contact official customer service to verify claims, it said. The public should also be on alert for Web sites directing them to speak with online customer service accounts on the Line messaging app and not take directions to use online banking, make ATM transfers, conduct cardless withdrawals or scan QR codes to transfer funds, it said. PRICE STABILIZATION: The Ministry of Economic Affairs has urged the legislature to support the Cabinet’s supplementary budget for state-owned energy companies State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Saturday announced that it would raise domestic gasoline prices by NT$0.7 (US$0.02) per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter this week after international crude oil prices rose above US$100 per barrel last week. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said that it matched CPC’s price adjustments for this week. The decisions end a six-week period during which CPC and Formosa kept fuel prices in Taiwan unchanged. Retail gasoline prices this week would rise to NT$31.2, NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC ‘GLOBAL WARNING’: The infiltration is not just a local problem, as Beijing has been deploying the same tactics worldwide against Western democracies, a report said Between 50,000 and 100,000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan, far more than the National Security Bureau’s previous estimate of 5,000, German journalist and author Jurgen Kremb said on Monday. Kremb presented his research, titled “The War of Spies: How China’s Intelligence Services Are Infiltrating Taiwan — and What Europe Must Learn from It,” at a joint event held by the Taiwan offices of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the European Values Center for Security Policy. The report was published in June in the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau’s Prospect & Exploration Monthly (展望與探索月刊). By spies, he said he was referring to informants, More than 100 Taiwanese-Americans, Taiwanese lawmakers and members of civic groups on Saturday marched through New York City to call for Taiwan’s participation in the UN, with Marshall Island Permanent Representative to the UN John Silk joining the event to show support. Participants chanted: “UN for Taiwan” and “Keep Taiwan Free” as they marched through central Manhattan, passing Times Square and Bryant Park before ending near the New York Public Library. The annual march brought together Taiwanese community groups from across the US East Coast. Silk expressed hope that Taiwan would one day be able to participate in UN meetings Two aides at independent Legislator May Chin’s (高金素梅) office were ordered detained incommunicado yesterday in a broadening probe into alleged Chinese espionage by Chin’s former chief of staff, Chang Chun-chieh (張俊傑). The move to hold Lin I-chun (林怡君) and current chief of staff Chen Chih-huang (陳智葟) in custody came four days after Chang, indicted on corruption charges, cut off his electronic monitoring wristband and jumped bail. The High Prosecutors’ Office said that it believes Chang had developed a Chinese spy ring, which might have operated for more than a decade, with funding from China, and that Lin and Chen were suspected of