The Criminal Investigation Bureau yesterday said it has arrested a fraud ring in southern Taiwan that it said swindled more than NT$10 million (US$337,952) from women in Hong Kong and China seeking love and marriage.
Bureau officials said they first received reports from victims in August last year and set up a surveillance operation after investigators found that the ring was based at two locations in Chiayi County’s Taibao City (太保).
The two locations were raided on Wednesday in an operation coordinated by Chiayi prosecutors, who were armed with search warrants, and with support from the bureau, the Chiayi County Police Department and military police units, the officials said, adding that six men and one woman in their 20s and 30s were arrested and taken in for questioning by prosecutors.
“We believe the ringleader is Chen Meng-nan (陳孟男), who is 36 and has previously been convicted of offenses against public safety and fraud,” bureau International Criminal Affairs Division 1st Investigation Corps deputy chief Yang Kuo-sung (楊國松) said. “We are looking to file charges of fraud and related offenses.”
The group, under Chen’s direction posted photographs of handsome men on dating and matchmaker Web sites, where they targeted mature women in Hong Kong and China who were interested in romantic relationships or marriage Yang said, adding that the women were lured into fantasy relationships.
“After building up the relationship to the point where the women were in love, Chen and other members would promise to marry them,” Yang said. “However, they then asked the women to wire them money, which they said they needed for investment or to fund profitable businesses.”
Evidence indicated that more than 10 women might have fallen victim to the scheme, all of whom were 40 years or older and most of whom are business executives or managers at hotels and other companies, Yang said.
A manager from China who fell for the scheme wired about NT$3 million to Chen, but when Chinese police told her it might be a case of fraud, she refused to believe it and remained convinced that she had found her true love, Yang said.
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