MoI changed the ID Number format

slawa · April 13, 2021, 2:24am

The staff at NHI are trying to persuade me and my employer not to update the ID number with NHI as the old one is still printed on the back of the ARC/APRC and is valid for 10 years.
I insisted to update it as I want all my stuff to be consistent. It’s just 200 TWD for a new NHI card anyway.

You can show them the text from the form:

健保署於受理並完成變更資料時，將註銷原使用之健保卡，故請保險對象另填「請領健保卡申請表」，並繳交工本費２００元，申請換發新卡。
※表列已申報提繳勞工退休金之人員，本表並為勞工退休金勞工資料變更申請書。

NHI staff can complain to MOI for that great idea of changing the ID number (without making anything better).

olm · April 13, 2021, 5:56am

That summarises this sad topic very well. Crazy to use non-random numbers as well - especially since we do have experts like Audrey here.

Maybe it’s like I feel it’s in Germany: there’s experts, sure. But lawmakers often just don’t listen to them.

slawa · April 13, 2021, 6:04am

It is just a continuation of bad habits. Taiwanese national’s ID numbers are also incremental. But there are 24m Taiwanese, so they get lost in the crowd and chances are less likely for the ID number to be abused by fraudsters.

slawa · April 13, 2021, 6:16am

Here is a form of abuse I can imagine:

There are websites which collect mug shot pictures in the US and post them with the name and charges publicly. Even if a person was cleared of all charges, that mug shot remains online.
They have a second business which claims to be able to remove those mug shots for a fee.
A vile business model.

Well you could generate all valid IDs and put them online, Google searchable. If a Taiwanese person happens to Google their ID, it will show them a page where it sensationalizes that their ID has been ‘leaked’ and they can remove it from view for a fee. Some might be unhappy about their ID posted publicly and indeed pay the small fee.
If a small percentage of 24m Taiwanese were to pay that, you still end up with a sizable amount of money for not too much work.
Obviously that will get you as much scrutiny from Taiwanese government as possible. But I doubt this to be illegal.

A side note: A group who did those mugshot websites were convicted of fraud and extortion in the US. Do not recommend

DesiInTaipei · April 13, 2021, 7:17am

No fee. But why not write a script and upload on GitHub. Email the repo link to appropriate government departments and at Taiwan news

No extortion but exposure. It’s GitHub so no fraud by you. The person has to run the code themselves.

slawa · April 13, 2021, 7:21am

Such libraries exist for a long time. Just modify to generate incremental IDs instead of random.

I even did a small fix commit to that one

public function personalIdentityNumber($gender = null){...}

github.com

fzaninotto/Faker/blob/master/src/Faker/Provider/zh_TW/Person.php

<?php

namespace Faker\Provider\zh_TW;

class Person extends \Faker\Provider\Person
{
    /**
     * @see https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E6%B0%91%E5%9C%8B%E5%9C%8B%E6%B0%91%E8%BA%AB%E5%88%86%E8%AD%89
     */
    public static $idBirthplaceCode = array(
        'A' => 10,
        'B' => 11,
        'C' => 12,
        'D' => 13,
        'E' => 14,
        'F' => 15,
        'G' => 16,
        'H' => 17,
        'I' => 34,
        'J' => 18,

This file has been truncated. show original

DesiInTaipei · April 13, 2021, 7:25am

Cool. So they’re incorrigible. Well nothing else to do but accept the system made by “experts”

Andrew · April 13, 2021, 8:18am

I can see the Taiwan News headline now: “Foreign hacker exposes Taiwan ID numbers online”

slawa · April 13, 2021, 8:37am

Famous quote of German Federal Minister of the Interior:

cats_meow · April 13, 2021, 12:24pm

Has anyone ever asked why we have to pay for the new NHI card or driver license when we go to update our numbers? I know the amount we have to pay is pretty low, but I was just wondering. It’s not like we have a choice in getting a new ID number.

Marco · April 13, 2021, 1:11pm

Yeah! The government screwed this shit up! They should pay!

Aikaili · June 1, 2021, 7:17am

This number change is painful. Besides all of the updates with banks, phone company, etc. listed above, my business license has my old APRC number. My Amazon seller account asked me to reverify my info and now I can’t until I get my card back from immigration and then my business license updated.

tando · June 1, 2021, 9:03am

Does this site accept the new ID number format?

https://eschool.tp.edu.tw/new

SuperS54 · June 1, 2021, 9:26am

Appears to accept both old and new formats, registration is not open until the 5th though.

bananas · June 1, 2021, 9:48am

It’s checking for this: pubedu.idno.search(/^[A-Z](1|2|A|B|C|D|8|9)\d{8}$/i) === -1 which isn’t a bad way to do it!

Darkesontr · June 1, 2021, 10:13am

Has anyone found one yet? It’s been 6 months.

slawa · June 1, 2021, 11:52am

Nope. And most likely such a case does not exist, because it would be just a bad implementation of ID check that would accept new format by accident.

wtf_developer

slawa · June 23, 2021, 7:54am

Relevant post from Audrey:

Audrey talks about the thread on Forumosa

https://sayit.pdis.nat.gov.tw/speech/472644

@fifieldt

DesiInTaipei · June 23, 2021, 8:12am

For the record, the flipped conversation/expectation is not working as well. Please think more and come up with something that would actually work.

Roflmauer · June 23, 2021, 8:42am

Got contacted by my bank (Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank - a TW bank btw) after receiving my new ARC. Went into the branch and it took about 2 hours.
They didn’t change any data though, they closed my old account and created a completely new account incl. new atm card, new online banking setup and linking my CC with the new account.
Haven’t received anything so far from my other bank (Taishin) but not looking forward to waste time again when they do.