Taichung authorities on Friday detained nine people about a reported online romance scam that allegedly involved the use of fake photographs to swindle women.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) and police raided a residence in Salu District (沙鹿) after receiving a tip-off.
Two desktop computers, 17 mobile phones, an Internet router, three modems and account books were seized during the raid, CIB investigator Wu Kuo-jung (伍國榮) said.
“We are still determining the amount of money this alleged online scam ring collected. From preliminary findings, it looks as if more than 100 female victims were cheated out of love and their money,” Wu said.
The suspects face charges of fraud and breaches of the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例), except for one, who is younger than 18 and would be prosecuted as a juvenile, Wu said.
CIB investigators said a suspect surnamed Ho (何), 27, was the leader of the ring, and that most of the other members were also in their 20s.
The group operated by posting photographs of shirtless handsome young men posing to show off their athletic torsos, investigators said.
“The suspects used online dating sites to target Taiwanese and Chinese women living in other countries,” Wu said. “After latching on to these women, the suspects began to sweet-talk them, initiating intimate conversations many times a day to create the illusion that they had a boyfriend who really cared for them.”
After the victims had fallen into the trap, the alleged scammers would start to ask for money, talking about making a good profit on the stock market or in investment schemes, Wu said.
One woman wired more than NT$1.9 million (US$60,529) to the group in a one-month period, Wu said, adding that as soon as the money was received and transferred to accounts held by Ho and the other members, they would cut off all contact with the victims.
The bureau urged people to be extra cautious when dealing with people online.
“It is important to use the Internet and search engines to verify who the people you are dealing with are, to prevent yourself from being cheated by unscrupulous people and questionable investment schemes,” it said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS