A woman has been ordered by the Chiayi District Court to pay NT$13.97 million (US$443,774) in civil damages for selling her mobile phone number to scammers who used it to defraud the man who filed suit.
The verdict can be appealed.
According to a civil judgement issued by the court on Friday last week, the woman, surnamed Liao (廖), signed up for a mobile phone number at a telecom store in Chiayi and sold the SIM card to a man who went by the name Chuang Chung-hsin (莊中信) on Aug. 10 last year.
Photo: AP
Chuang’s true identity and age are unknown, and it is unclear how the two met, whether Liao knew he was a scammer or why she sold the phone number, which she did for NT$300.
After obtaining the SIM card, members of the scam ring used it on Aug. 19 last year to call a victim, surnamed Huang (黃), impersonating police officers and financial regulators.
Huang was led to believe that his bank account had suspicious transactions and that he needed to cooperate, and under the scammers’ instructions, he transferred a total of NT$13.97 million to unknown accounts between August and October last year, the court said.
Although Liao did not carry out the fraud herself, the mobile number she sold to Chuang was used to contact the victim, the court said, adding that by providing the number, she had in effect assisted the scammers.
After a police investigation, Liao was prosecuted and found guilty of assisting in fraud.
In July, she was sentenced to 50 days detention, which could be converted to a fine at a rate of NT$1,000 per day.
Huang later filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages.
The information released by the Chiayi court did not mention further details about Chuang or whether the fraud ring has been dismantled.
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
PLANNED: The suspect visited the crime scene before the killings, seeking information on how to access the roof, and had extensively researched a 2014 stabbing incident The suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei on Friday had planned the assault and set fires at other locations earlier in the day, law enforcement officials said yesterday. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) said the suspect, a 27-year-old man named Chang Wen (張文), began the attacks at 3:40pm, first setting off smoke bombs on a road, damaging cars and motorbikes. Earlier, Chang Wen set fire to a rental room where he was staying on Gongyuan Road in Zhongzheng District (中正), Chang Jung-hsin said. The suspect later threw smoke grenades near two exits
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
RSS