Law enforcement authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will step up joint efforts to curb financial fraud that targets Chinese nationals, an aviation police officer said on Thursday.
The statement came one day after Taoyuan prosecutors, in cooperation with about 60 police officers from various agencies, busted two Taiwan-based fraud rings that had allegedly duped Chinese nationals into transferring money to bank accounts in Taiwan.
The law enforcement agents raided a residential building in Guanyin Township (觀音), Taoyuan County, arresting 10 suspects and seizing a number of computers, phones, guidebooks and accounting books, the police officer said.
Most of the victims of the phone scams were Chinese, who were told by the callers, pretending to be representatives of China's Public Security Bureau, that their phone bills were in arrears and they needed to transfer payments to a designated account, the police officer said.
The files stored on the computers that were seized could yield more information on how many Chinese had been defrauded, the officer said.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau will cooperate with China's Public Security Bureau to obtain statements from the victims via video link, the officer said.
In another raid, seven people were arrested on suspicion of placing fake employment ads in newspapers and convincing job seekers to open new bank accounts, the officer said.
These accounts were later used, in a joint operation by the two fraud rings, to accept transfers from the Chinese nationals who fell for the phone bill scam, he added.
All of the suspects have been transferred to the Taoyuan Prosecutors' Office for questioning, the officer said.
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