Police warned people about fraud on dating sites and social media platforms, citing a recent incident, in which a man was scammed out of NT$700,000.
The man, surnamed Liu (劉), last year signed up for a dating site and was asked to pay to become an “approved member,” the Keelung Police Bureau said.
Then he started chatting with a woman, it said.
Photo copied by Wu Sheng-ju, Taipei Times
“We kept on chatting. Then she asked me to make an online donation to boost her popularity,” Liu was quoted by the bureau as saying.
When Liu requested to meet in person, the woman said he needed to upgrade his membership by paying NT$90,000 so that they can meet up at a hotel room, and he complied, it said.
After that, the dating site’s customer service asked Liu to pay a “safety fee” to guarantee the woman’s safety, and he paid NT$60,000 in additional fees, it said.
Liu booked a hotel room, but nobody showed up, so he called the site’s customer service line to complain, it said.
“The customer service worker laughed and said he could file a lawsuit. They said that the site’s managers were in China,” it said. “Liu realized he was scammed, so he reported the case to police.”
Police made preliminary inquiries, finding that the photo of the woman was taken from the Internet, it said, adding that it would be difficult to identify the people behind the scam.
“It took a great deal of effort to deal with the bank so that they identify Liu as a fraud victim. It took eight months of talks and presenting evidence to successfully return about NT$70,000 to him,” Keelung Police Bureau criminal investigation head Kuo Ching-ju (郭憬融) said.
“Liu is very lucky,” Kuo said. “In most other cases, people do not get any money back.”
“Images of beautiful women can be easily found online and used by criminal groups to deceive people on dating sites,” Kuo said.
In such cases, members of criminal groups often find an excuse to demand that their victims wire some money, Kuo said, urging people to be careful when they use dating Web sites and apps.
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