Taipei City Police Department

     As the methods scammers use evolve constantly, people can easily fall prey to fraud gangs if they are careless. In an effort to raise scam awareness among students, Zhongzheng First Precinct of Taipei City Police Department (TCPD) officers recently visited Taipei Municipal Chenggong High School to enhance students' ability to defend against scams by sharing the common modus operandi of scammers. 

     Officers analyzed various recent scams and showed that apart from online shopping scams, social media impersonation and installment payment cancellations scams, there have been an increase in house rental scams. Fraud gangs often advertise rental properties on Facebook; they lure students by posting non-existent properties featuring beautifully decorated apartments and seductively low rents and ask for pre-payment of deposit. In order to prevent students from falling victim to scammers due to their lack of worldliness, TCPD officers reminded students to be particularly cautious and vigilant when renting property. 

     Furthermore, officers warned of the recent rise of AI-generated deepfake scams. Scammers are now utilizing deepfake technology to impersonate a person’s relatives or friends and request money. Indeed, as deepfake technology allows creation of extremely realistic images and convincing voices with high fidelity, what is seen may not necessarily be real. Therefore, people should set up a password or phrase with relatives and friends or verify through other channels to ensure the safety of their property. Last but not least, for any questions, please call the anti-fraud hotline 165 or 110 for verification.