STAYING ALERT: Of the 52 transfers intercepted by employees at banks and convenient stores in July and last month, 22 cases were friendship or romance scams
Taipei Times
Date: Sep 22, 2019
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Warm weather tends to bring out money scams, but workers at Taipei banks and convenience stores helped 52 people have a victim-free summer by preventing transfers totaling more than NT$28 million (US$903,809), according to the Taipei City Police Department.
Taipei Police Commissioner Chen Jia-chang (陳嘉昌) instructed all police units to keep channels of communication open with banks, convenience stores and shops so that employees could take action if they suspect someone to be the victim of a scam, the department said on Friday.
Of the 52 transfers that were intercepted by banks and convenience stores in July and last month, 22 cases, or 42 percent, were friendship or romance scams.
In one romance scam, a woman surnamed Lee (李) met a man who claimed to be Chinese-American on an online dating site, the Zhongzheng First Precinct said. [FULL STORY]