The number of foreigners arrested for illegal money collecting or other scams has surged from 87 in 2023 to 753 last year and 1,066 so far this year, National Police Agency (NPA) data released yesterday showed.
It and the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said they would work closer to combat the rise in foreigners working as money collectors, or running scams or other criminal operations.
The NPA said in a statement that many of those arrested for collecting cash from ATMs to pass over to handlers from criminal organizations were from Southeast Asian countries and had entered the country on short-term tourist visas, 30-day visa-free stays or were migrant workers who were already in Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Kinmen County Police Bureau
Officials told a news conference in Changhua County that they had arrested a Vietnamese man after he allegedly collected NT$170,000 in cash from ATMs to pass on to handlers.
The man said he obtained the job after responding to advertisements on social media that promised NT$3,000 to NT$5,000 per day.
If convicted, he could face one to 12 years in prison, a fine and would be deported after serving his sentence, Changhua County Police Chief Chen Ming-chun (陳明君) said.
Chen said that in the first five months of this year, the county had arrested 107 foreign nationals for suspected involvement in money collecting, 65 of whom are Vietnamese, 22 from Malaysia, 14 from Singapore, four from the Philippines and two from Thailand.
Thirty-four of them came to Taiwan visa-free, 44 are migrant workers with employment contracts, 25 are migrant workers who absconded from their employers, two are on student visas and two are on business visas, Chen said.
NPA officials said they are working with the consulate offices of some of the countries of those arrested to develop public education campaigns to warn of the legal consequences for working as money collectors for criminal organizations.
They want to showcase actual cases to warn people not to trust social media advertisements promising “easy money” by traveling to Taiwan, with food and accommodation paid for, to act as a money collector, the officials said.
The NPA said it would work with counterparts in the countries to share information on scam operators and criminal organizations, while providing anti-fraud material in the native languages of the nations to warn of the scams and to report suspected criminal activity.
NIA officials said they would establish files on “high-risk subjects” to filter out foreign nationals who are entering Taiwan often on visa-free tourist stays, but could be working in illegal money collecting.
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
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
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
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