Per the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s (CIB) August anti-fraud statistics, scams involving phishing links have increased significantly. The CIB urges the public not to click links directly when they receive emails from unknown senders; even links sent by friends or relatives should be independently verified first.

The CIB reported that criminal groups have recently been sending malicious links designed to trick people into changing account-transfer settings. The scammers then take over the victim’s LINE account and attempt to solicit fraudulent payments from the victim’s friends and relatives. They said there were a total of 505 reported cases in August, with financial losses in excess of NT$54.51 million (US$1.71 million). 

Officials further noted that phishing-link scams have recently become increasingly diverse. Fraud rings exploit email notifications from familiar e-commerce platforms, government agencies, financial-service providers, and logistics companies. They then use claims such as “you won a prize in an invoice lottery,” “your bill is overdue,” or “there is an abnormality with your order” to persuade victims to follow instructions and ultimately steal their messaging-app accounts.

In August, there were 10,652 reported telecommunications and online fraud cases nationwide, with total financial losses of NT$4.1 billion (US$129.01 million). Compared with the same period last year, these figures fell by 22.3% and 35.1%, respectively, indicating that overall anti-fraud strategies continue to have an impact.