Government Cracking Down on Bank Fraud, Encourages Using AI Against Scams

With scammers making off with nearly 1% of Taiwan's GDP, officials say banks need high tech solutions to deal with rampant fraud.

Transcript

00:00May I ask what is the purpose of this payment?

00:03A bit of role play with a serious purpose.

00:06This bank teller has a suspicious customer

00:08who can't explain why he wants to withdraw over US$20,000.

00:12Using her training, she figures out this man is a scam artist,

00:16and it's not long until police are on the scene to arrest him.

00:19In the audience at this demonstration

00:21are Premier Zhou Rongtai

00:22and Financial Supervisory Commission official Tong Zhongchang.

00:26Taiwan seeing a surge in scams and fraud.

00:29From mid-2022 to mid-2023,

00:31fraudsters made off with nearly 1% of the national GDP.

00:35But while bank accounts aren't the main target,

00:37officials are still determined to keep them safe.

00:40Bankers say their anti-fraud measures work most of the time.

00:54But it's that 10% that can be lucrative,

00:56and Taiwan is full of accounts ripe for criminals to try and access.

01:00That's because Taiwanese employers usually have a preferred bank

01:03that new hires have to open an account with to get paid.

01:07So people who change jobs frequently

01:09may end up with many accounts they don't bother to close.

01:12Those abandoned accounts can then be taken over by fraudsters,

01:15with the original account holders none the wiser.

01:18To help fight the problem,

01:19the government set aside over US$200 million for next year.

01:23But officials say money won't be enough.

01:26They want closer cooperation between banks and customers,

01:29and they seek high-tech solutions as well.

01:47It may not be easy for banks to pull this off.

01:50In recent years, fraud has proved to be a sticky problem,

01:53with new rings popping up when old ones are busted,

01:55and no shortage of inventive new scams.

01:58But officials are still making a clampdown on fraud a priority.

02:01Scott Huang and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.