Prosecutors have indicted four alleged members of a Taichung-based cyberfraud ring that used deepfake technology to scam at least 55 Chinese nationals out of NT$200 million (US$6.33 million), the Criminal Investigation Bureau said yesterday.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office filed the indictment against the four in November last year on charges of contravening the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例), and Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例), and for Offenses of Impairment to Use of Computers (妨害電腦使用罪), the bureau said in a statement.
The Taichung ring worked with a fraud gang in China to acquire the personal information of Chinese nationals online, the bureau said.
Photo copied by Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
Using the stolen identities, the Taichung ring was able to create videos with the likeness of Chinese victims using deepfake technology that were then used on China's digital yuan (e-CNY) mobile banking applications, it said.
The deepfake faces were used to gain access to the e-CNY banking accounts of users and transfer funds, the bureau said.
Authorities began an operation to dismantle the ring after receiving a tip-off in mid 2024, it said.
Police then focused on a man, surnamed Lu (盧), who rented a unit in Taichung's Beitun District (北屯) as a base for the scam operation with two other people, it said.
In November 2024, investigators discovered that the ring was financed by a 34-year-old man, surnamed Lin (林), who was in Thailand at the time, the bureau said.
The ring also created social media accounts to be sold to fraud factories operating outside Taiwan, it said.
Lin was arrested in Thailand in May last year and repatriated to Taiwan in June, police said, adding that his three accomplices in Taiwan were detained from November 2024 to June last year, with authorities seizing more than NT$120,000 in cash, 320 smartphones and six computers.
Citing the bureau’s fifth cybercrime division, United Daily News reported that the case marks the first time a fraud ring using Starlink and deepfake technology has been uncovered in Taiwan.
So far, no Taiwanese have been identified as victims, the report said, adding that the bureau has shared information from the case with the Financial Supervisory Commission to prevent fraudsters from using similar techniques to target Taiwanese.
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