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Teacher Wang, Po-Chi was interviewed by The Joumalist
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2023/7/24
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Teacher Wang, Po-Chi was interviewed by The Joumalist: The Island of Fraud - Phenomena "Only 6% of the people in the country have not received the deceitful message. Why did Taiwan become an island of fraud?" TANG,HSIAO-TIEN 2023-06-28
The old man who was cheated out of his pension said in grief and anger, "I have to take tranquilizers every day to live, and I even want to die." The engineering and engineering students of National Taiwan University were scammed by playing virtual currency, and their part-time savings evaporated. "I heard that the main suspect recently bought a new sports car." There are also people whose accounts were embezzled by fraudulent groups. Fraud is pervasive in every corner of society, and it has become an issue of national security. Why is the national team still unable to do anything about the escalation of fraud? What is the reason? "The Joumalist" specially produced the special feature "Island of Fraud", which deeply explores the causes, effects and solutions of the endless fraud cases in Taiwan. People wake up early in the morning and their mobile phone text messages keep ringing, and they keep receiving text messages from unknown sources such as "Notification of overdue receipt of gas and fuel fees, your overdue gas and fuel fees in 2011 is 2,880 yuan", "Your products have been delivered to 7-11 stores, please go to pick up the goods as soon as possible", "Principal Cash is 6,000 yuan, please click the website to claim it", etc. The relevant information is constantly being updated. The whole people live in all kinds of fraudulent messages, and they are also integrated into current events to make false ones, which makes it hard to guard against; according to statistics, last year, the whole people were defrauded as much as 7 billion yuan, and many people went bankrupt overnight, and the money was never returned. The Ministry of Digital Development, text message scams, tax repayment to the people, and government discovery funds (photo/photo by Hong Yuxun) fraudulent text messages emerge in endlessly. (Photo by Hong Yuxun) A nearly 60-year-old retired wholesaler Ayu (pseudonym) joined the "Teacher CHIU,CHIN-I Investment Line Group" on the Internet in February this year. She recalled that after joining the group, the fake teacher CHIU,CHIN-I said that she was busy with work and invited her to join the "Assistant Teacher" group. She was just waiting and watching, but saw that many people in the group shared the profits. Although her family and friends didn't believe it, she became obsessed with ghosts and began to send money on the APP one after another at the instigation of the other party.Ayu explained how the fraudulent group defrauded the victim’s money with meticulous methods. She said that she first remitted 500,000 yuan to the Xinkang APP, and bought several stocks with daily limit. Then the teacher urged her to "draw stocks" to apply for new shares. The price difference was 30,000 yuan. I really went to collect money and got 5 million yuan, and the other party sent a driver to the company to withdraw money. Xiaoyu sent a total of nearly 12 million remittances. In April this year, when she wanted to withdraw money on the Xinkang APP, she kept failing to withdraw it. Only then did she suddenly realize that she had been cheated and rushed to the police station to report the case. Ayu cooperated with the police in handling the case, first told the assistant teacher that he would continue to buy shares, and made an appointment with the driver to withdraw money from the company in the afternoon. Ayu said that she and the driver waited in the elevator on the first floor of the company. When the driver appeared, the police arrested him on the spot. The police found that the driver had stamps, receipts, and a knife on his body. After the police transferred the driver to the local prosecutor’s office, the driver said that he had the right to remain silent and would not accept night-time interrogations. Later, the prosecutor released the driver on bail. Said indignantly. After being ransacked by a fraud group, Ayu's life changed completely. She said, "After being defrauded and awakened, the mood along the way was extremely bad. I couldn't eat and sleep well in the first two weeks. All my hard-earned savings and pensions were in vain." Later, Ah Yu’s health also went wrong. He had breast cancer before he was cured. Recently, due to endocrine disorders, his mood fluctuated a lot. He had to rely on tranquilizers every morning and evening. When he thought that he might never get his money back, he felt a tingling pain in his heart. He also felt sorry for his family and colleagues. Many financial frauds broke out on online social platforms, and even emerging technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrency also broke out many frauds. Huang Weixuan, a well-known blockchain industry player in Taiwan and the founder and CEO of the Steaker digital asset management platform, is suspected of illegally absorbing money and defrauding hundreds of millions of yuan. Xiaowen (pseudonym), a student who was deceived and is studying for a doctoral program in the Department of Economics, studies anti-money laundering. He first learned about blockchain investment because he attended a lecture by Huang Weixuan on campus. Xiaowen said, "I was attending a lecture at the school and followed the speaker's introduction to investing in the blockchain. Who would think that the school speaker would have trouble?""If there are more cases, it will shake the foundation of the country. After the proliferation of drugs and guns, it will become the third national security crisis that can corrupt Taiwan's social atmosphere." Li Guimin, a legislator of the Kuomintang who has received many complaints about fraud cases, said so worriedly. How rampant are fraud cases in Taiwan? "The Joumalist" investigated the statistics of the Police Department and found that since 2017, there have been an average of more than 20,000 fraud cases in Taiwan every year, and the number of cases has continued to grow. Last year, it soared to more than 29,509 cases (nearly 30,000 cases). "I'm afraid that's not the only real situation. In fact, many celebrities and white-collar workers felt ashamed after being scammed and didn't come to report the crime!" A senior criminal police officer who has been investigating fraud cases for nearly 10 years observed this. Investment-type fraud tops the list, and the "Fraud National Team" has not been effective in deterring it? There are various types of fraud cases. Further analysis of the types of fraud cases, among them, the investment fraud cases of “im.B, a real estate lending and lending platform”, which recently involved a sum of 2.5 billion yuan and involved many blue and green political figures, have the largest number. According to the statistics of the Police Department from January to the end of October last year, the first type of fraud cases was "investment fraud" accounting for 22.15%, followed by "removal of installment payment fraud (ATM)" accounting for 16.22%, the second was "general shopping fraud (fake sales)" accounting for 12.17%, and the fourth and fifth were fake online auctions and dating."In recent years, stocks may have soared during the epidemic, so that people can see that investing in stocks will be profitable, and various investment frauds have emerged!" A front-line criminal policeman who specializes in fraud investigations sighed. He observed that after the government set up the national team to fight fraud, "the methods of the fraud group became more extreme, more vicious, and the amount was larger." Sometimes even experts could not identify it, and the fever did not abate in the slightest. According to the data released by the Ministry of Justice, in 2021, 124,899 new fraud cases were received by the local prosecutor's office, accounting for 23.4% of all criminal cases, and fraud cases accounted for nearly a quarter of the local prosecutor's office. Prosecutor CHIANG,CHANG-CHIH of the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office accepted an interview with "The Joumalist" to reveal the true situation of the District Prosecutor's Office. "I receive 80 cases a month, and 30 to 40 of them are fraud cases. Now every prosecutor has a heavy workload, and they have to work overtime until midnight every day to digest these small cases." He sighed, "No matter how capable prosecutors are, they don't have the time and energy to investigate larger financial crimes. Is this what the country wants?" The number of people being defrauded and the amount of money being defrauded continue to rise. Courts, local prosecutors' offices, and police agencies are paralyzed by "massive" fraud cases, and front-line law enforcement officers are overwhelmed . The government promulgated the "New Generation Anti-Fraud Strategy Action Plan" in July last year. On May 4 this year, it passed the "New Generation Anti-Fraud Strategy Action Plan 1.5" and established a cross-ministerial and hospital-level "Fraud Case Office." Reason 1: Leakage of personal information, information security full of loopholes What is the reason for the rampant fraud cases in Taiwan? The most important reason is that the personal information of the whole people leaked out, and mobile phones and Internet accounts fell into the hands of fraudulent groups. A senior criminal police officer who has been investigating fraud for 10 years said that in the early days, fraudulent syndicates often called the public to "ring and hang up" to collect public information; now, in addition to the leakage of personal information of well-known companies such as China Airlines and iRent, there are also reports that 23 million household service records of Chinese people have been hacked and sold online. It has not been difficult for fraudulent syndicates to obtain public information."Last year, it was reported that 23 million pieces of household registration information from the Ministry of the Interior were leaked. Has the case been solved?" I-Long, Lin, the founding director of the Taiwan Association for Digital Forensic Development (ACFD) and a professor of engineering at Tatung University, questioned that both the government and enterprises have not kept up with international information security standards in recent years; The international information security management system (ISO/IEC27001) has been gradually introduced to improve the information security environment. In addition, in response to the epidemic, the government previously established an online real-name system for masks and a real-contact system for text messages. In addition, the recent establishment of a new website for the "Universal Cash Plan for All" has constantly asked people to fill in their personal information, which also puts the personal information of all people at high risk. An anonymous information security expert pointed out that the government always requires people to fill in personal information. Has it complied with the principle of minimizing data collection in the Personal Information Law? Is the data deleted after use? Has the platform been verified by "third-party information security"? If these information security tasks are not done, there is of course a risk of leakage of public agency information. The exposure of the personal information of the whole people makes fraud as if the epidemic is around you and me. As the public's awareness of text messages and online fraud is getting higher and higher, the tools of fraudulent groups have also shifted to third-party platforms for payment and digital currency. The Jianqing Procuratorate collectively named the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Digital Development Department at the "Prosecutors' Fraud Prevention Seminar" a few days ago, allowing fraudulent groups to run rampant here. A criminal police officer who investigates fraud also said that fraud syndicates are now committing crimes on emerging technological tools such as the Internet and blockchain, but the point is that this is an area where the government does not care at all, and there is no agency supervision at all. This is the most serious test facing fraud. In this regard, Zheng Ruilong, a professor at the Crime Prevention and Control Institute of Chung Cheng University, questioned that only 6% of the public did not answer fraudulent calls, and fraud is rampant in the Internet world. However, since the establishment of the Digital Development Department, there has been very little effort in anti-fraud. Why does a unit with a budget of tens of billions fail to meet the basic requirements of the public? How about letting the people live in fear of being scammed every day? Reason 2: The leader cannot be caught, and the "breakpoint" of the fraudulent industry chain is difficult to track downThe government has set up a national team to fight fraud, and is actively working on the four major aspects of "punishing, detecting, blocking, and preventing fraud." However, the methods of fraud groups are constantly innovating. The biggest problem facing fraud is that they can only catch the "account provider" and the "driver" who goes to the ATM to collect money; the real "head" is still hidden behind the Internet, waiting for the deceived. The biggest problem facing fraudsters is that they will always only catch the "account provider" and the "driver" who goes to the ATM to collect money. The real "head" is still hidden behind the Internet, waiting for the deceived to take the bait. (Photo by Ke Chenghui) Last year, the main suspect in the Taiwan version of the Cambodian case that shocked the society, "Landao", has been arrested. He set up multiple breakpoints, and more than 1,500 physical financial accounts alone were investigated. A criminal police officer specializing in fraud pointed out that the two major gangs in Taiwan, Mingrenhui and Hongrenhui, have gradually turned from traditional drug trafficking, gun trafficking, and violent debt collection to fraud. Not only are they highly profitable, but the penalty is also lower than that of drug trafficking and injury crimes. Fraud of illegal gains has become an important source of money for gangs. "The intervention of gang forces will make fraud more difficult to crack down on." Fraud groups seem to have become a huge industrial chain. The "head" hides behind the cross-border IP location of the computer, and the bottom is divided into the "computer room" responsible for calling fraud, the "water room" responsible for collecting money and cross-border money laundering, and the "retrieval hand" who collects accounts, the "driver" who is responsible for withdrawing money from ATMs, the "driver head" who manages the drivers, and finally the "fake account provider" at the bottom. "Accomplices" surged, and the Ministry of Justice pushed for " head account crime" to amend the law. According to data from the Ministry of Justice, in the past five years, 507,859 cases of fraud crimes have been investigated and concluded, and telecommunications fraud and intimidation cases accounted for 6."The District Prosecutor's Office is full of head account crimes!" Chen Jianliang, a lawyer at Quanquan Law Firm and former chief prosecutor of the New Taipei District Prosecutor's Office, said that because the "breakpoint" of the fraud case is easy to design, the leader hides behind the network and directs the offline fraud. The police only catch the driver and the head account provider. Most of these defendants argued in the local prosecutor's office that "I applied for a job and handed over my account without knowing it", "I encountered fraud when I applied for a job", etc., making it difficult for the prosecution to prove whether the defendant had "subjective intent to help money laundering", so the case was often closed without prosecution. However, after the Ministry of Justice enacts the crime of head account, the situation will be better. Why is it so difficult to cheat? A grassroots policeman who has been investigating fraud cases for nearly 10 years said bluntly, "Everyone thinks that the police are responsible for combating fraud, but they don't know how difficult it is for the police to obtain official documents." For example, when a victim reports the crime, the police will call the 165 special line, and 165 will send an official document to the bank to ask for information, so as to know who the money was sent to. Usually, it will take 2 to 3 days if it is fast; if it is a weekend or holiday, it will be as fast as a week. And after finally catching the driver, the police are completely powerless to trace the driver, water room, engine room, etc. behind him all the way. A grassroots policeman said that in the past, the police would ask Chunghwa Telecom to check their mobile phone contact records. Now the fraudsters know that they cannot make calls with their mobile phones. They all use special communication software and delete the records immediately after the call is over.
The police community has also unanimously complained that many technological weapons, such as the use of M-shaped vehicles (M-shaped detection network mobile phone positioning systems), can be used to track fraudsters, implant Trojan horse tracking on fraudsters, and so on. However, due to long-standing human rights concerns, the Science and Technology Investigation Act has been delayed in passing in the Legislative Yuan. Taoyuan police sent M-cars to locate and crack the Humbug computer room. As a result, in April this year, the court found that the police lacked legal basis for M-cars, and all four fraudsters were acquitted.
If the Science and Technology Investigation Act is not passed, it's like the gangsters are driving Tesla and the police are still riding UBikes, "said a senior police officer bluntly. Wang, Po-Chi, an associate professor of the Department of Criminal Justice of Ming Chuan University, said that Humbug are now using the Internet and technology to commit crimes and are constantly evolving, but the government's Science and Science and Technology Investigation Act has been delayed in passing, and the police's investigation technology is limited, just like "the police are chasing the high-speed railway by riding ubike." What chips and weapons can they use to fight against the fraudsters? We call on the government to amend the "Science and Technology Investigation Act" as soon as possible and provide necessary resources for the investigation of crimes, taking advantage of the availability of public sentiment, if they are willing to engage in fraud.
Reason 3: The punishment for the crime is too low, and fraudsters are not afraid of punishment
However, Humbug are rampant, and many fraudsters come out again after being locked up. The prosecutors, the police and the judicial circles once thought that the key is still that the sentence for fraud in Taiwan is too light, which leads to that fraudsters are completely afraid of it.
Last year, when the main suspect of the Taiwan version of the Cambodian case, "Lan Dao" Du Chengzhe, was arrested, he was found to be a habitual perpetrator of fraud. He was also responsible for the fraud in the previous case, "Yi Fu Gong", while also directing a criminal group. Huang Kuo-chang, the former legislator of New Power Party, has kicked the whistle on Facebook. The "aggravated fraud" crime found by Lan Daojing is a total of 31 crimes. The original statutory sentence for each crime is "more than one year, less than seven years", but the final result is "sentenced to two years, suspended sentence" and "sentenced to October, easy labor", which means that there is no need to serve the sentence in prison.
43% have been sentenced to less than 6 months in the past 5 years, and less than 1% have been sentenced to more than 3 years
Reading the chapter on the crime of fraud in the Criminal Law, Article 339 of the Criminal Law stipulates that those who intend to use fraud to cause someone to deliver their or a third party's property shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 5 years, detention, or a fine of not more than 500000 yuan. If anyone falsely uses the name of a government agency or civil servant, or uses broadcasting, television, electronic communication, the Internet, or other media as a means of communication, it shall be considered as a "telecommunications fraud crime" and must be subject to increased criminal responsibility, with imprisonment of not less than 1 year and not more than 7 years, and may also be fined not more than 1 million yuan.
The maximum sentence for telecommunications fraud in the Criminal Law can be up to 7 years, which is not too low. But CHIANG,CHANG-CHIH believes that after the Ministry of Justice revised the Criminal Law to increase the punishment for fraud, the punishment level is not low, and the focus is on "the judge's sentencing is too light". He said, 'Both European and American courts reduce the maximum punishment from the highest, but Taiwanese judges increase the punishment from the lowest.' The prosecution is not a heavyweight criminal, but it must also meet a certain proportion. The phenomenon of judges' leniency in sentencing is unimaginable. The sentencing for fraud cases is not uncommon, and how to judge is very low, Every fraudster comes to the local prosecutor's office in Da Ao Te Ao, goes to the court again, and is later sentenced to a light sentence. What is the justice of the victim like this
Taiwanese fraudsters
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