The country’s infamous telecom scammers operate on the margins of international society, target rich Chinese merchants and hide their ill-gotten gains in the ‘renegade province.’
The news Lens
Date: 2018/05/23
By: Jules Quartly
Photo Credit: Reuters / TPG
About 10 years ago an American friend in Taipei received a call from a pleasant-sounding woman who warned him to act quickly to prevent his bank account from being hacked. Pressured into transferring funds through his ATM, it took him a fraught half hour to lose his money to the scammers.
It was unfortunate that he was fluent in Chinese, or he would not have been targeted. He reported the crime, but there was little or no likelihood of any real investigation, let alone a prosecution. Since he voluntarily transferred the funds, there was nothing his bank could do about the situation. It was an easy and low-risk money-making strategy for the scammers and the penalty, if caught, was a smack on the wrist and a token fine.
Since then the scam has gone global and evolved to accommodate rampant social media use, spreading to messaging apps like WeChat and QQ. In addition, fraudsters use the latest telemarketing and political party tech, making automated telephone calls or “robocalls” to phish for victims.
Taiwan has even become infamous for producing scammers expert in this field. So much so that if you do a quick google you will find a Quora thread titled, “Why do many Chinese call Taiwan ‘The Island of Swindlers?’” [FULL STORY]
