KMT's Hou vows to crack down on fraud if elected president

Taipei, Dec. 7 (CNA) The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) pledged Thursday that if elected, he will make every effort to crack down on fraudsters and reduce the number of fraud cases in Taiwan.

Stricter laws will be introduced to punish those who engage in fraud while inter-agency and cross-border cooperation will be enhanced to make such efforts more effective, Hou said at a press conference held with his running mate Jaw Shau-kong (趙少康) and Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞), a KMT legislator-at-large nominee.

The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) must be able to cooperate with other ministries and departments to maximize the effectiveness of technological investigation, information security and artificial intelligence (AI) development, Hou said.

During the event, the presidential candidate vowed to reduce Taiwan's fraud cases by half within three years if elected.

Although the ruling Democratic Progressive Party has allocated NT$1.3 billion (US$41.34 million) to combat fraud, much of it has been spent on venue fees, according to Ko, who is an expert on blockchains and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) in the Chinese speaking world.

Meanwhile, he also criticized the Financial Supervisory Commission, the National Communication Commission and MODA for failing in their responsibility to combat fraud.

Various technologies, including AI, should be employed sooner to effectively trace fraudsters and return the money they defraud as soon as possible to victims, Ko said.

The most terrifying thing right now is the use of AI to commit fraud, and therefore MODA absolutely needs to address the matter as soon as possible, he added.

MODA is supposedly set up to improve Taiwan's digital developments, but the fact is the country lags far behind China, Jaw said, noting that the latter has become a cashless society.

Not being able to solve the huge fraud problem is a national disgrace, Jaw said, lamenting that the current penalties against such crimes in Taiwan are far too lenient, resulting in the number of fraud cases reaching a 10-year high under the DPP government.