TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fraud rings mimicking third-party payment websites have become a new threat to online sellers, the digital affairs ministry warned Friday.

According to the ministry, its online scam reporting platform has received 7,113 reports of fake buyers scamming real sellers, per CNA. Thanks to efforts by the Administration for Digital Industries and the Cybersecurity Institute, fraudulent sites fell from more than 200 in early June to just three by the end of the month.

Administration for Digital Industries Deputy Director-General Lin Chun-hsiu (林俊秀) explained that scammers lure sellers onto lookalike third-party payment sites, then trick them into revealing a verification code. Authorities have responded by scanning and intercepting these sites through a DNS Response Policy Zone (RPZ) system, per UDN.

EC Pay CEO Liu Shih-wei (劉士維) said fraud groups even forge domain names and fake customer service to appear legitimate. Third-party payment firms are adding website warnings and developing risk-control systems to catch suspicious patterns earlier, he added.

Digital Affairs Deputy Minister Lin I-ching (林宜敬) added that fraud rings often register domains without any content at first, adding fake pages right before scamming, then removing them.

Online scams have been a growing problem across Taiwan in recent years, as more consumers and businesses adopt digital payment tools. Officials urged the public to double-check website domains before entering personal or financial information.