The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office on Thursday indicted a woman, surnamed Lu (呂), on charges of fraud and document forgery after she allegedly forged medical receipts for stray cats to scam animal lovers online for NT$227,000 over two months.
The office said Lu frequented a Facebook fanpage called “Crazy Cat Club” and posted comments on how to care for stray cats.
As part of raising funds online, Lu allegedly forged receipts from three local veterinary clinics, greatly inflating the actual cost of having the cats treated, the office said.
From May to July 2016, Lu posted photographs of three stray cats on Facebook and asked for donations to treat and care for the unhealthy cats, the office said.
Lu also posted the allegedly forged receipts and a photograph of her savings book to the fanpage, which has hundreds of thousands of members, the office said.
Lu told prosecutors that she received NT$227,000 in donations from June to July 2016, when the actual medical bills amounted to less than NT$10,000.
A Kaohsiung-based veterinarian, a member of the club, noticed some questionable details on the receipts and suspected that Lu might be inflating her actual costs, the office said.
After calling the clinics in Tainan about the receipts, the veterinarian brought the case to the attention of the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, the office said.
Once she learned that her scheme had been exposed, Lu relinquished to the Tainan veterinary clinic the stamp and four receipts that she had forged using the clinic’s name, the office said, adding that the clinic had later turned over the items to the police to be used in the investigation.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost