Taipai Lawmakers Question National Mobile Payment Policy

Lawmakers in Taipei are questioning a two-way authorization policy for customers making small transactions on mobile.

The policy, which was initially enforced to protect the customers, has proven to be ineffective with an 83 percent rise in scams since last year resulting in losses topping NT $3.15 million.

Text messaging applications like Line are often used by hackers to send mass messages with spam links, which download Trojan Horse viruses and steal important personal information like authorization codes for payment.  The information is then used to shop online and further spread fraudulent information to user contacts.

The current National Communication Commission’s policy requires telecom companies to request authorization code from users and a transaction confirmation message once the code has been received.

However, the current mechanism deems ineffective, since hackers gain access to users’ cell phone through phishing messages and are able to communicate with the telecom company.

DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-Jin told Taipei Times that messaging through applications like Line makes it difficult for the government to solve fraud cases as the messages are encrypted and operated by companies overseas.

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