How Did My Account Become a "Dummy Account"?

Many citizens may not realize how, in a state of confusion, their accounts end up being used as dummy accounts by fraud syndicates for scams. By the time they notice, the fraud syndicate has long tricked other victims into wiring money into the dummy account and withdrawn it all. To help citizens be on guard early, several common scenarios in which one's account might be exploited by fraud syndicates to deceive people are explained below:

1. Selling personal accounts, cash cards, or passwords to others
   The most typical case of this type involves, for instance, reading small classified ads in the newspaper and selling one's account for others to use. Although you may simply have been in urgent need of money when selling the account and may not have explicitly known it would be used by a fraud syndicate for scams, as long as this situation can be proven—regardless of whether you actually knew the buyer's purpose—you can easily become an accessory to fraud.
2. Handing over accounts, cash cards, or passwords to apply for loans
   You may have seen a small newspaper advertisement or information from an online loan brokerage and taken the initiative to call, and unfortunately, this information was actually fake information provided by a fraud syndicate. Alternatively, the fraud syndicate may have disguised themselves as loan brokers and called citizens at random, and you happened to pick up the phone. Common tactics used by these fraud syndicates include:
   
   • To enable you to successfully borrow money, they claim they need to beautify your account to increase your credit conditions and create cash flow within your account; thus, they require you to provide your account, cash card, and password.
   • To gain your trust, they ask you to specifically note "For XXX loan application purposes only" on the materials you hand over, such as your ID card and passbook, or ask you to withdraw all the money in your account first before handing it over to them for processing.
   • Processing a loan requires a certain amount of time, so they ask you to stay in touch with them (through your phone conversations with them, they confirm that you have not seen through the scam, ensuring the dummy account remains active and continues to trick others into wiring money). They will also tell you that if the bank calls to notify you of abnormal fund activity, they are just handling the cash flow, so you do not need to worry; just tell the bank "I understand" and take no further action.
3. Handing over accounts for the purpose of seeking employment
   You may have seen a small recruitment ad in the newspaper and called, or you may have posted your job-seeking information on an online job board and received a call, but the other party was actually a fraud syndicate. Common tactics used by these fraud syndicates include:
   
   • Your job duty is an outside-sales role that collects cash. Because the company has many sales representatives, depositing money directly into the company account might cause confusion and make it hard to track which sales representative made the deposit. Therefore, the company's practice is to temporarily store the collected cash in your account and wire it to the company account later for easier reconciliation.
   • Your job duty is to drive women to engage in sex work. Because sex work is not an orthodox industry, your salary and the women's salaries will be wired to your personal account, after which you withdraw the money to pay the women's salaries, your own salary, and the company's commission, and the company will perform account reconciliation.
   • Your job duty is to withdraw money from your account and give it to the company because the company's business skirts the edge of the law. For example, the company operates online gambling games, and gamblers' money is wired to your personal account, which you then withdraw and hand over to the company for account reconciliation.
   To gain your trust, the fraud syndicate may tell you:
   
   • You must withdraw the money first because they are also afraid of losing your account and causing you a loss, or of you mistaking them for a fraud syndicate.
   • Please stay in contact with them, as they need some time to review whether you are suited for this job (during this time, they build trust, confirm you haven't seen through the scam, and take the opportunity to trick others into wiring money).
   • They vent to you about how they don't really want to do this kind of work that skirts the edge of illegality either, and that they want to quit after making some money.
4. Lending personal accounts to friends and family for use
   This situation is quite common in Taiwan. Because of a relationship of trust, if a friend or relative clearly states a reason for borrowing, you might generously lend your account and provide the password. If friends or family take your account and give it to a fraud syndicate, it is truly hard to guard against. However, you can still try to avoid problems by doing the following:
   
   • Make sure you know the other person well enough before lending it to them.
   • Clearly understand what the other person wants to do with your account. In some cases, the friend or relative who borrowed your account actually fell victim to a fraud syndicate without realizing it, such as borrowing your account for a job hunt or loan application. If you can ask a little more about what they are going to use the account for, you might realize, "Wait, why does this sound like a scam tactic (mentioned in this article)?"—which might just help them and yourself.
5. Loss of passbook or cash card
   If you accidentally lose your passbook or cash card, it may also be taken by a fraud syndicate to use as a dummy account. This situation is particularly likely to occur if your password is a lazy password (too simple), or if you keep your password together with your passbook or cash card. If it is a lazy password, the fraud syndicate only needs to pick up your other personal information to easily guess the password. If the password is kept together with the passbook or cash card, it is even easier, and they don't even need to guess.
   The fundamental solution is, of course, to avoid using lazy passwords or keeping passwords together with passbooks and cash cards. However, many people are truly busy and cannot remember so many different passwords. If you really must do this, then as soon as your passbook or cash card goes missing, you must report the loss immediately. Never think that since there is no money in the account, you can just forget about it if it's lost!