Los Angeles Times
Date: Jun 09, 2018
By: Ralph Jennings
Hundreds of Taiwanese people living in the United States, including many in Los
The Foreign Ministry in Taipei, Taiwan, is warning Taiwanese living abroad of scam artists claiming to represent the governments of Taiwan or China. (David Chang / EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Angeles, have gotten chilling telephone calls in recent months from scam artists falsely claiming to represent government agencies and aggressively demanding payments to settle problems, the Taiwanese government warns.
Although the reports suggest the motive is fraud, officials in Taipei have not ruled out a political cause. The callers speak with mainland Chinese accents, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrew Lee said.
The fraudsters often claim to be representatives from Chinese or Taiwanese government agencies and demand bank transfers to clear cases involving back taxes, kidnappings or health insurance irregularities. The cases are fake, and the bank accounts involved belong to private people rather than government agencies.
Callers sometimes allege “issues such as errors on visa or passport application documents,” the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles said in a statement in January. [FULL STORY]
