TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Scammers will use text messages to try and defraud the public of the NT$6,000 (US$195) rebate from surplus tax revenue likely to be handed out next month, the government said Thursday (Jan. 5).

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced Wednesday that each citizen was likely to receive the amount to be paid from NT$140 billion in extra tax revenue.

Cabinet Spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) warned the government would never use text messages to tell the public the NT$6,000 had arrived in their account. There was intelligence that fraud rings were preparing to send out the messages in order to get their hands on the money, the Liberty Times reported.

The government instructed the National Police Agency (NPA) to launch preventive measures, Lo said. During the past year, more than 37.04 million fraudulent text messages were intercepted before they could reach users, an increase of 148% from 2021. There were also 5,400 instances of scammers using phone numbers that had officially been suspended.

Due to a government campaign against the scams, 893 rings involving 8,141 suspected members had been neutralized in 2022, an increase of 65.99% from 2021. Lo emphasized that the public also needed to be careful and help the authorities fight the practice, for example, by calling the 165 fraud prevention hotline.