More than half of online drug sales may be fraud. Experts call for multi-pronged prevention

Internet drug trafficking methods are constantly changing, from the names of candies and drinks, to code words used by some young people, to seemingly straightforward phrases such as "music lessons" that have been circulated in recent years. However, senior police officers said that more than half of the drug trafficking messages and code words circulating on the Internet are most likely not actual drug trafficking, but traps set by fraud syndicates. Not only should the public be careful, but also the investigation work faces unprecedented challenges.

More than half of online drug sales may be scams

A senior criminal police officer pointed out that in the past, drug codes could be associated with the appearance, packaging or method of administration. Nowadays, terms such as "music class" have escaped from the drug itself and have been replaced by behavioral or situational cues. It is difficult to identify drug transactions by relying on words alone. If there is only a single keyword , code words or pictures, and lack of evidence of actual transactions, cash flows, drugs, and connections between buyers and sellers. It is not easy to further investigate and handle. Even if the platform removes the post, the suspect may immediately change his account and start a new one, creating a "delete one, re-create another" tracing dilemma.

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The Taichung City Criminal Police Brigade pointed out that if a website or platform is determined by the government or court to involve fraud, illegality, or security risks, telecom operators can be legally required to block public connections by modifying the Domain Name System (DNS). However, drug trafficking messages use a lot of slang and metaphors. If it is not clearly proven that the post is illegal, it will be difficult for the platform to completely block it with just one word.

In the past, the police have stepped up surveillance on suspected drug codes such as "candy", but this has accidentally affected normal online merchants. There have even been cases where legally sold candy products were mistakenly removed from the shelves by the system, triggering protests from the industry. Nowadays, "music lessons" itself is a common term in daily life. If it is completely blocked, normal music teaching, courses and related content may be affected. Therefore, it is almost impossible to rely on "banned keywords" to solve the problem.

In addition, there are scams on the Internet under the guise of drug trafficking. Senior police officers pointed out that many so-called drug trafficking advertisements on the Internet are actually scams. The suspects believe that even if drug buyers are deceived, they may not dare to ask for help because they are afraid that reporting the crime will be like "self-certified drug purchase."

In the face of Internet drug slang, we cannot just rely on keywords to "block every one we see." We must cooperate with the police, digital authorities, platform operators and other units to conduct comprehensive cross-tracing from account numbers, contacts, transactions, cash flow and specific criminal activities. We also remind the public not to send money out of curiosity or intention to buy drugs, otherwise not only may they be exposed to drugs, but they may also become a cash machine for a fraud group.