Print

Mail

wiki links

Press-corps members suffer Caribbean credit scam

Presidential Office spokesperson Chen Wen-tsung, right, starts a press conference yesterday outside the Presidential Office over the credit-card fraud incident. PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES

Around seven reporters, who were part of the press corps traveling with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during his recent diplomatic visit to Central America late last month, found themselves victims of credit-card fraud during their stay in a hotel in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

After the incident was reported yesterday in a Chinese-language newspaper, Presidential Office spokesman Chen Wen-tsung (陳文宗) held a press conference to say that his colleagues and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials had been dealing with the matter.

"President Chen said he would personally pay for losses incurred by the reporters if the improper transactions could not be canceled," he said.

Taiwan has asked the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for help in investigating the incident, Chen Wen-tsung said.

As of yesterday, seven of 40 reporters on the tour had reported irregularities with their credit-card accounts. All transactions are thought to have taken place at Roy's Inn, the hotel the reporters were staying in on Sept. 29.

Because credit-card companies have different bill-closing schedules, other reporters in the group were not able to say whether they were also victims of the alleged fraud.

"It's estimated that the loss will amount to tens of thousands of NT dollars ... but the exact amount is yet to be calculated," the spokesman said.

The problem was first discovered by Kuo Chiung-li (郭瓊俐), a staff reporter with the China Times Express. She said her credit-card company told her by text message of five transactions in the country, which made her suspicious.

"Although I used the credit card when I checked into the hotel, I paid cash for the room. I kept receiving text messages over the following days after leaving St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which was very unusual. Then I checked with the credit-card company after coming back to Taiwan," she said.

Presidential Office staffers were housed in different hotels while in the country, and no other incidents of fraud have been reported.
This story has been viewed 2378 times.