A cross-border ring that defrauded Taiwanese who donated to charities out of NT$34.09 million (US$1.14 million) has been raided and 50 suspects detained, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said on Wednesday.
The operation started after the computer system of a software firm that managed the fundraising database for several Taiwanese charities was hacked, said Yang Shih-yu (楊適瑜), deputy commander of the bureau’s First Investigation Corps.
That data breach provided the fraud ring with information on potential victims, including their telephone numbers and the amount of money they regularly donated, Yang said.
The Down Syndrome Association Taiwan and the Dijiama Social Welfare Foundation, affiliated with Jenn Lann Temple in Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲), were among the charities whose names were used by the scammers, Yang said.
The criminal ring, which called its potential victims from China, tricked them into believing the donations they made had not gone through, Yang said.
Some of those who were called followed the scammers’ instructions and changed the settings on money transfer details using an ATM, which resulted in their donations being transferred to bank accounts belonging to ring members, he said.
At least 188 people had since July last year been tricked into wiring money to ring members, who pretended to speak on behalf of 45 charities, Yang said.
Forty-eight suspects — allegedly responsible for withdrawing the cash from the bank accounts — were detained between September last year and May, he added.
Further investigation revealed that some of the victims were duped into remitting money to multiple e-wallets owned by a company based in New Taipei City at online shopping platform Shopee, he said.
Two men surnamed Lo (羅) and Chen (陳) were arrested on May 24 when the bureau raided the company’s office, Yang said, adding that they allegedly colluded with the ring’s operations in China and used stablecoin cryptocurrencies to launder the money in an effort to obstruct the investigation.
Lo and Chen were referred to the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for investigation, and charged with fraud and money laundering before being released on bail, Yang said.
If found guilty, the two men face up to seven years in jail, he added.
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