A bank teller in Miaoli County prevented a woman from falling for an online dating scam, as they deemed her attempt to transfer US$500 abroad suspicious.
The teller informed the police after a woman, surnamed Huang (黃), on Wednesday last week requested the transfer to a Chinese bank account.
Huang said that the money was emergency funding for her “husband,” a person who goes by the name James, who she connected with about six months ago through an online dating app, the Jhunan Township (竹南) police precinct said.
Three officers persuaded Huang that she was the target of a scam.
Although the two had never met, Huang talked to James every day and deemed that they developed a close relationship, to the point of calling each other husband and wife, police said.
James then asked Huang to transfer money to cover living expenses, they said.
However, Huang was prevented from transferring the money, and thanked the teller and the officers for their vigilance.
This case was unusual for its length, precinct chief Yang Tsan-chun (楊贊鈞) said on Saturday.
The alleged scammer spent a half-year developing a relationship with Huang, Yang said, adding that if it were not for the bank teller, the scam would have succeeded.
Cross-border online dating scams are becoming increasingly common, Yang said, calling on the public to be cautious when chatting with strangers online.
If someone brings up a money transfer, this might be a sign that it is a scam, he said.
The most common scam involves a person posing as an attractive man with a good job abroad, Yang said.
After gaining the potential victim’s trust, the scammer would ask for large sums of money to be transferred to their account, he added.
Yang said that people who suspect a scam should call the 165 anti-fraud hotline, contact authorities through the National Police Agency’s anti-fraud app (165反詐騙) or visit their local police station for assistance.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS