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Taiwan fraud rings relocate operations to SE Asia <!-- TITLE : end--> <!--
Operators ring mobile phone numbers and con people into transferring money to certain bank accounts. -The China Post/ANN --> </td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr> <td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="550"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td> <table> <tbody><tr><td>
</td> </tr> <tr><td class="content_subtitle" align="left"> Mon, Jan 25, 2010
The China Post/Asia News Network </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td align="right" width="400"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td align="right" valign="top">
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TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwanese telephone fraud rings have moved their cross-border operations from Taiwan and China to Southeast Asia since across-strait pact on crime-fighting and judicial collaboration took effect in April 2009, a police source said Sunday. The fraud rings have set up new "call centers" in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines and have hired Taiwanese, Chinese and locals workers, the source said. The job of these "call center" operators is to ring mobile phone numbers and con people into transferring money to certain bank accounts. Typically, the potential victims are told that they are eligible for a tax rebate or are given a warning to transfer their savings from one account to another because they being targeted by a fraud ring.
It is believed that these fraud rings, most of them headed by Taiwanese, have conned billions of New Taiwan dollars from their victims, the police source said. In light of this development, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) under the National Police Agency has been collaborating with its counterpart in Thailand since 2008 to jointly crack down on these fraud rings, according to the source. Ho Chao-fan, a CIB inspector in charge of international criminal investigation, flew to Bangkok recently to bring back a Taiwanese ring leader, identified as Chih Ching-hsiang, on Jan. 21. Chih was the first Taiwanese criminal to be repatriated from Thailand since the two countries began joint crime-fighting operations two years ago.
Police liaison officers stationed in Thailand by the CIB engaged in five joint operation projects with their Thai counterparts in 2009 to bust crime rings in Bangkok, Chiangmai, Pattaya and Phuket Island, and arrested more than 200 people, including over 100 Taiwanese criminals, most of whom were telephone fraudsters, Ho said. According to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand, a total of 196 Taiwanese citizens are doing time in Thai jails at present. Of the total, 110 were convicted on charges of drug trafficking and 75 on charges of credit card fraud, theft with the use of forged cash cards, and telephone fraud. Operators of these fraud rings hired young unemployed Taiwanese men, mostly between ages of 20 and 30, to work in Thailand in the belief that Thai police would not be able to bust them.
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Taiwan fraud rings relocate operations to SE Asia <!-- TITLE : end--> <!--
Operators ring mobile phone numbers and con people into transferring money to certain bank accounts. -The China Post/ANN --> </td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr> <td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="550"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td> <table> <tbody><tr><td>
The China Post/Asia News Network </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td align="right" width="400"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td align="right" valign="top">
</td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3" class="bodytext_10pt"> <!-- CONTENT : start -->
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwanese telephone fraud rings have moved their cross-border operations from Taiwan and China to Southeast Asia since across-strait pact on crime-fighting and judicial collaboration took effect in April 2009, a police source said Sunday. The fraud rings have set up new "call centers" in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines and have hired Taiwanese, Chinese and locals workers, the source said. The job of these "call center" operators is to ring mobile phone numbers and con people into transferring money to certain bank accounts. Typically, the potential victims are told that they are eligible for a tax rebate or are given a warning to transfer their savings from one account to another because they being targeted by a fraud ring.
It is believed that these fraud rings, most of them headed by Taiwanese, have conned billions of New Taiwan dollars from their victims, the police source said. In light of this development, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) under the National Police Agency has been collaborating with its counterpart in Thailand since 2008 to jointly crack down on these fraud rings, according to the source. Ho Chao-fan, a CIB inspector in charge of international criminal investigation, flew to Bangkok recently to bring back a Taiwanese ring leader, identified as Chih Ching-hsiang, on Jan. 21. Chih was the first Taiwanese criminal to be repatriated from Thailand since the two countries began joint crime-fighting operations two years ago.
Police liaison officers stationed in Thailand by the CIB engaged in five joint operation projects with their Thai counterparts in 2009 to bust crime rings in Bangkok, Chiangmai, Pattaya and Phuket Island, and arrested more than 200 people, including over 100 Taiwanese criminals, most of whom were telephone fraudsters, Ho said. According to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand, a total of 196 Taiwanese citizens are doing time in Thai jails at present. Of the total, 110 were convicted on charges of drug trafficking and 75 on charges of credit card fraud, theft with the use of forged cash cards, and telephone fraud. Operators of these fraud rings hired young unemployed Taiwanese men, mostly between ages of 20 and 30, to work in Thailand in the belief that Thai police would not be able to bust them.
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