Colleagues from the Shulin District Office found that there were many doubts about Ms. Liu's identity during the identity check and immediately became vigilant. (Photo/Provided by New Taipei City Land Bureau)
The property under my name was almost mortgaged under a false name! The New Taipei City Shulin Land Office received an application for setting up a real estate mortgage last month. A man named Zhou and a woman named Liu who claimed to be his wife were planning to set up a mortgage of 2 million yuan on the property jointly held by the couple. Unexpectedly, the land officer used the facial recognition system to set up a mortgage. After comparing the identity, it was found that the similarity between Ms. Liu and the ID card photo was only 10.2%. After further inspection, it was discovered that she was not the wife of the homeowner at all. Fortunately, she was stopped in time before the mortgage was set up to prevent the property from being mortgaged by an impersonator. The whole case has been handed over to the police for investigation.
This incident occurred on the morning of the 21st of last month. Together with local politicians and creditors, Mr. Zhou and Ms. Liu went to Shulin Land to apply for the mortgage setting and notice registration of the property jointly held by the couple. The mortgage amount was 2 million yuan. Since the two did not submit seal certificates, land officials activated the facial recognition system to help confirm their identities. As a result, the similarity between Mr. Zhou and the photo on the ID card was 89.7%, while Ms. Liu was only 10.2%, making her identity obviously suspicious.
Zhou Nan argued on the spot that his wife looked different because of her double eyelid surgery. However, when the land staff asked further questions, Liu could only answer some basic personal information and was unable to fully explain her identity. Therefore, the handling staff suspended the case and did not continue to process the mortgage setting.
In order to prove their identities, Mr. Zhou and Ms. Liu then went to the Yingge Household Registration Office to apply for a seal certificate. Unexpectedly, the household registration staff also noticed an abnormality and immediately notified the police and contacted the Shulin District Office. The office also notified the New Taipei City Criminal Police Brigade. In the afternoon of the same day, when Zhou Nan learned that the police had intervened, he quickly returned to the office and requested to withdraw the case.
A fellow local government official later revealed that because he noticed something was wrong in the case that day, he personally went to Zhou's wife's workplace for verification, only to find that Ms. Liu was not Zhou's wife at all, and she could no longer contact Zhou. A few days later, the district office made an appointment to interview the real Zhou's wife. Her facial recognition similarity reached 75.4%, and she could fully answer identity concerns questions. After confirming her identity, the district office handled the rejection based on her objection letter.
Wang Liguo, director of the New Taipei City Land Affairs Bureau, said that the establishment of a real estate mortgage involves the property rights of the owner of the house. Once it is handled in an impersonation, the homeowner may be unknowingly exposed to the risk of mortgage establishment. Therefore, nine land offices in New Taipei City have comprehensively implemented caring questions for private mortgage establishment cases and strengthened identity checks on applicants to prevent real estate mortgages from being set up under false names.
Wang Liguo pointed out that New Taipei City was the first in the country to introduce the "Facial Recognition E-Photo" system as early as 110 years ago. When people apply for registration cases such as real estate transfer, mortgage creation, and title reissuance, but do not have a seal certificate and need to further confirm their identity, they can use the system to compare the applicant and the ID photo. If the identification result is too low, the land officer will ask for other identification information and confirm that it is the person before proceeding with the process.
The Land Bureau also reminds the public that if they want to know whether there are any changes in the property under their name, such as purchase and sale, mortgage rights setting, etc., they can apply for the "Cadastral Change Instant Notification". When there are relevant registration cases or changes in the real estate under their name, they can receive notifications via text messages or emails, so that abnormalities can be discovered early and the risk of the property being fraudulently disposed of can be reduced.
