The China Post, The Asia News Network, Taipei, Taiwan | Sun, 12/25/2011 12:15 PM
Personal information of as many as 20,000 applicants for cash cards issued by Taishin International Bank in Taiwan have been found to be part of a massive leak of information to a con ring recently busted by the police, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday.
The police discovered the massive trove of personal information from a computer seized from a fraud ring busted more than one month ago, and the identification card numbers of the victims were classified in an alphabetical order, with A indicating that the ID cards were issued in Taipei, B representing Taichung and so on, in complete accordance with the classifications made by the Ministry of the Interior.
“It seems that the personal information of the 20,000 applicants for Taishin's cash cards, between 2003 and 2005, was directly copied from the computer system of the bank. It's really terrible!” said a police officer.
The leaked personal information of the victims was processed by the con ring into image files for illegal sales to others, so that it could rake in profits. The leaked personal data clearly stated the name, cash card number, ID card number, telephone, address, national health insurance card, household domicile registration, and passbook of each cash-card applicant.
As some of the applicants were servicemen, their soldier's ID cards and monthly salary sheets were also leaked.
Among the victims is a New Taipei City councilor, named Cheng Chin-long, who said it would be a troublesome thing if their personal information was illegally utilized as surrogate accounts, because they would face a court's questioning sessions as a result.
Some other victims randomly interviewed by the Apple Daily via phone calls showed mixed responses to the leakage of their personal information, although all of them have yet to be informed by Taishin Bank of the leakage.
“Fortunately, I have scrapped the Taishin cash card for a long time, otherwise I may suffer,” one client in Taipei said.
Another client in Kaohsiung said that has hasn't yet received any fraud call so far, and he would turn a deaf ear to such calls if sent by cons.
But a female client in Taichung blasted Taishin Bank for failing to protect personal information of its clients from being illegally collected, processed and used by fraud rings.
In response to the undesirable leakage, Wu Ching-wen, chief executive officer of the Personal Banking operations of Taishin Bank, said that the leakage might result from a massive computer-hacking case that occurred several years ago. Wu continued that his bank has since reinforced the security mechanism of its computer systems and centralized the management of the personal information of all the 20,000 clients involved in the case, having yet to receive any report from clients about any abnormal conditions with their cash cards.
Meanwhile, the Financial Supervisory Commission has asked all the banks in Taiwan to better safeguard the interests of their clients, and has requested Taishin to remind its clients how not to be cheated by con rings.
A lawyer said that based on the revised Personal Information Protection Act that was ratified by the Legislative Yuan in 2010, victims can ask the Consumers' Foundation to file a collective lawsuit against those who leak their personal information and seek a maximum compensation of NT$200 million (US$6.6 million).
