TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A man has been fined NT$4 million (US$130,000) for setting up a system to broadcast a phishing scam to cellphones at a Taipei MRT station.
National Communications Commission (NCC) spokesperson Po-Tsung Wong (翁柏宗) said on Wednesday (Aug. 9) that a 30-year-old man surnamed Kuo (郭) set up what was essentially a mini cell phone tower outside Taipei’s Zhongshan MRT station in November 2022. Kuo then used the device to broadcast fraudulent text messages to cellphones being used inside the station, per Taiwan People News, which UDN reports he did from inside his car.
Kuo sent out a large number of phishing messages that asked people to enter their credit card number and other personal information into a faked E.SUN Commercial Bank website. Wong said the fraudulent messages enabled Kuo to steal around NT$3 million from 22 people.
Kuo was arrested shortly after the scam was carried out, and his radio equipment seized. The case marks the first time in history the NCC has encountered an individual who used their own equipment to broadcast an illegal cellphone signal to defraud legitimate users, Wong said.
Wong said that Kuo’s fake cell phone signals were being broadcast using a 2G signal that shares a band with Taiwan Mobile. He said that 2G services were shut down in Taiwan in 2017, so any communications received on cellphones connected to a 2G signal can immediately be identified as fraudulent.
The NCC informed the public that if a cellphone quickly loses and regains signal, or if it changes from 4G or 5G to GSM of 2G, the signal may be coming from a fake cell site.
