Police Reveal Four Election Scams, Warn Public Against Fake Merchandise and Investment Traps

As the scaffolding for Taiwan's 9-in-1 local public officials elections gradually goes up, the campaign atmosphere across the island is intensifying daily, with campaign billboards, rallies, and candidate canvassing schedules fully underway in every corner. However, during major electoral periods, alongside fierce political competition, various illegal activities and new types of fraud attempting to piggyback on the trend are also beginning to stir. In response to this public security concern, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the National Police Agency under the Ministry of the Interior issued an official warning today, urging citizens nationwide and all campaign teams to remain highly vigilant while throwing themselves into the election race, and to guard against various fraudulent schemes exploited by criminals using election topics to ensure personal property safety.

According to in-depth analysis and statistics from the CIB, fraud syndicates often possess a high degree of sensitivity and adaptability. Whenever major popular issues or events emerge in society, criminal groups quickly adjust their scam scripts and tactics. For this 9-in-1 election race, police have summarized the four most common and deceptive "election scam tactics." The first is "fake campaign giveaway merchandise." Fraudsters, capitalizing on the public's preference for free souvenirs or practical promotional items, spread messages via social media or messaging apps offering free collection of specific candidates' exquisite peripheral merchandise, luring citizens into clicking unknown links or filling out personal information, which subsequently leads to the theft of accounts or personal data.

The second common scam method is "investing in candidate billboard advertisements." In this approach, fraud syndicates disguise themselves as advertising agencies, marketing firms, or candidate staff teams, soliciting supporters or enthusiastic citizens to invest in campaign billboards, large outdoor advertising walls, or online publicity ads, while claiming guaranteed high returns or the opportunity to build political connections. Many citizens, out of support for a specific camp or a momentary lapse in attention, blindly trusted these seemingly professional investment offers and wired large sums of money into designated dummy accounts controlled by the criminals, only realizing they had been scammed and losing all their money after the election ended or when the relevant personnel could no longer be reached.

The third scam targets the digital social media ecosystem through "impersonating candidate accounts." With the increasing prevalence of digital campaigning, almost every candidate has official fan pages, social media accounts, or messaging app groups. Fraudsters, spotting this characteristic, maliciously register fake accounts extremely similar to candidates, or directly hack and misappropriate existing official accounts of political figures, and subsequently borrow money, solicit donations, or publish incorrect donation accounts to supporters, friends and family, or grassroots key fixers. Because many citizens trust the political figure, they often wire money directly without secondary confirmation, resulting in financial losses while severely disrupting the candidate's image and election prospects.

The fourth highlighted scam is "defrauding businesses under the guise of political contributions." During the election period, candidate teams frequently need to procure items from local catering businesses, printing plants, stationery stores, or event material suppliers, or seek political contributions and sponsorships. Fraudsters thus exploit this vulnerability by posing as the candidate's campaign headquarters or key staff members to order large quantities of bento boxes, promotional items, or rent equipment from local businesses. They then use various excuses (such as asking businesses to advance payments, purchase other materials, or handle administrative procedures) to demand that businesses wire or transfer funds, causing many small-scale business owners to suffer financial losses in vain.

In response to the endless emergence of these election-related fraud tactics, the CIB emphasized that elections should be an important moment to demonstrate democratic values and local autonomy, and unscrupulous individuals must not be allowed to exploit them for exorbitant profits and disrupt social order. In addition to instructing local police departments to strengthen the crackdown on related illegal cases and actively pursue the criminal syndicates behind the scenes, the police also specifically called on the general public to maintain rationality and vigilance when participating in or following election activities. If citizens receive any suspicious messages, investment offers, loan requests, or donation requests from non-official channels related to the elections, they should not believe them lightly, but instead verify them through official channels or directly with the candidate's campaign headquarters. They can also dial the 165 anti-fraud hotline at any time for consultation and reporting to jointly safeguard a clean, fair electoral climate and social security.