TAIPEI, Taiwan - The postal savings system has become the largest source of surrogate accounts utilized by fraud rings, as up to 85 percent of such accounts were found to be postal savings accounts, an opposition lawmaker cited statistics compiled by the Control Yuan as indicating yesterday.

Lawmaker Yeh Yi-jing of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party said at the transportation committee session, held to screen the 2010 budget of Chunghwa Post, that from 2004 to May 2009, there were as many as 3,973 surrogate accounts found at the postal savings system, with 85.8 percent of these accounts found to be being utilized by swindle gangs.

Yeh blasted the Chunghwa Post for failing to strictly screen the identification data and pictures of those who open accounts at postal offices around the island.

Yeh said Chunghwa Post has virtually become the largest 'helper' of con rings.

The lawmaker also cited tallies compiled by the Cabinet-level Financial Supervisory Commission as indicating that of the 195 demerits in financial operations listed by the FSC, 54 were committed by the Chunghwa Post, mainly involving the failure to thoroughly screen the identification data of those who opened accounts at the postal savings system operated by state-run postal service company.

In response, You Fang-lai, chairman of the Chunghwa Post, said that what Yeh said was true, but he added that the majority of a total of 30 million postal savings accounts are kept by low- to medium-class people, who are more likely to be lured by con rings into offering their ID data to open surrogate accounts. You said his company will screen more rigidly the ID data of people who want to open postal savings accounts.