Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) officials on Wednesday said that they have broken up an international telecom fraud ring and arrested 14 people.
The ring was allegedly led by a man surnamed Cheng (鄭), who last year set up the group’s operating base in Cambodia.
He earlier this year moved the base to Montenegro, and then to Italy and Turkey, before returning to Taiwan due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Wang Chia-hua (王嘉華), captain of the CIB’s Crime-Fighting Corps in central Taiwan.
Due to language and cultural barriers, the fraudsters did not target citizens of other countries, but focused on defrauding people in China, Hong Kong and Macau, Wang said.
Telecom records and bank statements showed that the suspects allegedly defrauded about 80 people, mostly Chinese nationals, over the telephone or social media, Wang said, adding that they made illegal gains of about NT$12 million (US$421,215).
The ring members moved to a new country every few months to evade police surveillance, while Cheng allegedly coordinated their operations from Kaohsiung, Wang said.
After receiving tip-offs on Cheng’s activities, the CIB in August carried out raids in Kaohsiung and other locations, arresting Cheng and eight other ring members who had returned to Taiwan, Wang said.
The fraudsters fooled their victims by telling them that they had been caught up in a Chinese judicial investigation for hoarding masks or other medical supplies related to COVID-19 prevention, or for their involvement in money laundering, and asked them to wire money to designated bank accounts, Wang said.
After the arrests in August, five other suspects were caught when they returned to Taiwan in the past few months, Wang said, adding that CIB officers waited for them to complete their 14-day mandatory quarantine at designated hotels before taking them in for questioning.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS