- Staff writer, with CNA
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday said fraud syndicates often use sensational narratives or celebrities’ names in the mass text messages they send out, citing as an example scammers posing as ex-Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and asking recipients for money.
In the text message, which has been making rounds online, the fake “Huang” says he has been “framed by the US government” and is in urgent need of NT$1 million (US$30,453) to expose the plot against him, the CIB said.
The impersonator says that if the recipient if they send him money, he will name Nvidia’s upcoming GeForce RTX 6090 graphics card when he returns to the helm of Nvidia, the bureau said.
The emblem of the Criminal Investigation Bureau is pictured in an undated photograph.Photo: CNA
The CIB confirmed the scams were sent via Apple’s iMessage service.
There were no reports of people falling victim to the scam so far, it said, adding that the text was very likely a “scam attempt disguised as a parody meme.”
It is an updated version of the common “military romance scam,” in which a person claiming to be a military officer stationed in a war zone in the Middle East says they are trapped or injured and need money to escape or leave, the bureau said.
The CIB advised the public to be wary of messages from unfamiliar numbers, as fraud syndicates frequently use overseas or proxy phone numbers to send out mass text messages.
Phone numbers of people who respond to the text are flagged by scammers as active and valid, which puts them at risk of being targeted in other scams or phishing attempts, the CIB said.
Any “unreasonable request” — such as the “head” of a multinational corporation reaching out to a regular citizen via text message for money — or any urgent request for a money transfer to overcome some difficult situation, is “100 percent likely to be a scam,” the bureau said.
It also urged people to be cautious of “exaggerated or false promises of returns,” such as high investment yields, a frequently-used tactic of scammers.
Upon receiving scam text messages, members of the public are advised not to reply or click links they might contain, and instead block the sender, it said, adding they should also report suspected scams to 165 anti-fraud hotline.