Twelve telecom fraudsters arrested, NT$9.3m seized
Law enforcement busted an alleged telecom fraud ring that targeted people in China, arresting 12 suspects and confiscating NT$9.3 million ($334,232) in suspected illegal earnings, the Bureau said on Wednesday. criminal investigations in a press release.
While conducting a data analysis of suspected fraud cases, bureau officials discovered that several individuals suspected of operating telecommunications fraud call centers in August 2020 began traveling to the Middle East, the office said, adding that it has since suspected they were expanding their operations. abroad.
The Kaohsiung City Bureau and Police Department have established a special unit under the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor’s Office, he said.
The unit discovered that members of the alleged fraud ring, led by a 36-year-old man surnamed Yun (運), frequently traveled to the Middle East and later to Albania, where they are believed to have established another call center for their fraudulent schemes, a bureau official said.
In one of their most common schemes, members of the ring posed as bank employees responsible for credit card payments and attempted to convince their targets over the phone that they had missed a credit card payment. credit or that their credit card had been hacked, the official said.
The call was then transferred to another member of the network posing as a Chinese police officer, who told people they were involved in money laundering and therefore had to pay them to avoid prosecution. said the manager.
In December last year, after some network members returned to Taiwan, investigators raided their residences in Taoyuan, Nantou and Taitung counties, and arrested 12 suspects, the official said.
Police confiscated NT$9.3 million in suspected illegal earnings, bank books, debit cards and mobile phones, the official said.
The network is suspected of defrauding 145 people for a total of NT$200 million, the bureau said.
Yun and other suspected network members have been referred to Kaohsiung prosecutors for further investigation, he added.
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