Law enforcement agencies have completed a week-long national sweep targeting telecoms fraud, with police officials yesterday saying that they have apprehended about 200 suspects and are hopeful of recovering significant amounts of money.
The crackdown began in Taipei earlier this week, where police arrested 157 people suspected of taking part in telecom scams mostly targeting Chinese, although there were also Taiwanese victims.
Taipei City Police Department spokesman Chou Shou-sung (周壽松) said that a preliminary check of evidence and records seized indicate that scam operators netted more than NT$103.5 million (US$3.19 million) from about 626 people.
“The situation was the result of recent crackdowns and arrests in foreign countries of Taiwanese accused of involvement in telecom scams, such as in Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. We received reports that many high-level operators and organizers of these fraud rings had returned to Taiwan, because they had to lie low while waiting for the storm to blow over. Therefore we mounted a focused sweep to root them out,” Chou said.
Chou said police officials were able to stop money transfers by victims amounting to about NT$3.32 million during the operation. Among the evidence seized were boxes of documents, including fraudulent court-issued documents and falsified police certificates.
Investigators said the scam operators called people pretending to be government officials conducting investigations and told the victims to co-operate with asset checks while instructing them to transfer money for “temporary safekeeping” as part of a judicial procedure.
Another scam used was hacking into Web sites selling goods and telling people there were problems with their payments and that they should transfer money to another account, or they would ask for personal information and passwords then empty the victim’s bank account.
Meanwhile, Tainan and Taichung police announced they had broken up a major telecom scam, apprehending 27 suspects, including a person surnamed Chen (陳), believed to be the mastermind of the operation.
Tainan police said the evidence and records seized during the raid showed Chen allegedly made more than NT$60 million over the past year in an operation targeting Taiwanese, with at least 196 victims.
The suspects, including callers, accountants, technicians and money collectors, who withdraw cash from ATMs, were taken to local prosecutors’ offices for questioning, pending fraud and other related charges by prosecutors.
Police asked the public to help crack down on telecoms scams by providing tips, and are offering a reward of up to NT$200,000 for information on major operations.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS