New Taipei City police on Sunday arrested 14 people suspected of involvement in a fraud ring that allegedly stole money through unauthorized payment channels on the online shopping site Shopee.
Police said they suspect the leader of the ring to be a 39-year-old man surnamed Su (蘇), who purloined a total of NT$1.5 million (US$49,381) from 36 buyers over the past seven months.
Su and others were apprehended during raids that were carried out over the past several days, Sinjhuang Precinct investigation brigade chief Chang Chun-ming (張俊明) said, adding that they will continue to investigate the case as prosecutors pursue fraud charges against the 14 suspects.
“Su headed up the group that put items up for sale on Shopee. They attracted buyers with lower-than-market prices for mobile phones, personal electronics and household appliances,” Chang said.
The group circumvented the authorized payment channels by calling potential buyers and offering even lower prices for purchases made outside the official Shopee platform, Chang said.
“The buyers wired the money to accounts set up by Su, who then dispatched group members to collect the money, but the buyers never received the purchased items,” he said.
A buyer tipped off the authorities earlier this year, but it took more than six months of monitoring the transactions and investigating before police could track down Su and the others, Chang said.
Shopee, a subsidiary of Singapore-based computer gaming company Garena, was launched in Taiwan in October 2015.
Garena, which in May changed its name to Sea Ltd, was founded in 2009 by Singaporean entrepreneur Forrest Li (李小冬) and has since branched out to e-commerce and other businesses. It is now one of Southeast Asia’s leading mobile shopping and payment services.
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings had been a major shareholder in the firm since 2013, raising concerns that personal information and financial records from transactions would be passed to the Chinese government, breaching personal privacy and undermining Taiwan’s national security.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS