A man surnamed Fang has been charged with concocting several nicknames to sell consumer electronics goods on social networking platforms concerned with second-hand items such as cellphones and game consoles. After one of his victims remitted payment for a graphics card, the buyer actually received a bunch of bananas, while someone else bought a Sony Playstation 5 game console but instead received tubes of toothpaste. The Kaohsiung City Police Department Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC) set up a task force, which traveled to Yilan County to search premises rented by Fang. Fang vehemently denied any involvement, but his denial was contradicted by evidence provided by the victims and a friend whose account had been used for the transaction. The police transferred him to the Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of fraud and a court granted the prosecutors’ request to hold him in detention.
Speaking on Feb. 17, a spokesperson for the Kaohsiung CIC’s Eighth Detective Team said that a chip shortage and the COVID-19 pandemic have caused a worldwide shortage of PS5 game consoles, and this has forced people to buy them from second-hand device sales platforms instead, where they may even have to pay more than the recommended retail price. Realizing that many gamers were seeking to buy these devices through certain Facebook groups, 36-year-old Fang cooked up Facebook identities with nicknames like “Chou Chieh-lun,” “Chou Yu-min” and “Yang Lai-kuo” and offered to sell PS5 consoles, hot-selling second-hand cellphones and other consumer electronics goods at 10 percent off the market price. This attracted many people to place orders, but they ended up getting swindled.
The CIC estimates that at least 60 people fell victim to this scam between July last year and February this year, and were defrauded by a total of at least NT$1.2 million. Fang denied everything. He said he did not know “Chou Chieh-lun,” “Chou Yu-min” and “Yang Lai-kuo” and claimed that these three Facebook accounts did not belong to him.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public 照片：民眾提供
The police believe that the suspect used this technique not only to evade the law by throwing up a smokescreen of civil disputes, but also to make his victims believe that the items had been mistakenly sent to the wrong recipients. This would make it take longer for his account to be put on a watch list, thus giving him more time to make his ill-gotten gains. After being arrested, Fang claimed that the cellphone was not his, but the police still handed him over to the prosecutors’ office on suspicion of fraud.(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
方姓男子被控在網路巧立幾個暱稱，在二手手機、遊戲機等社團平台兜售3C商品。被害人買顯示卡匯款後，竟收到一串香蕉，還有人買PS5遊戲主機，結果收到一條牙膏。高雄市政府警察局刑事警察大隊獲報成立專案偵辦，前往方嫌宜蘭縣租處搜索，但他矢口否認，被害人和被借金融帳戶的友人指證歷歷，警方依詐欺罪嫌將他移送宜蘭地檢署，檢方聲押獲准。
高市刑大偵八隊二月十七日指出，PS5遊戲機受晶片短缺及疫情影響，全球大缺貨，民眾只好轉往二手機平台搶購，而且還得加價才能順利入手，三十六歲的方男發現不少玩家在臉書特定平台求購，臉書巧立「周劫侖」、「周漁民」、「楊來過」等暱稱，還以低於市價一成價格，兜售PS5主機及暢銷二手手機等3C商品，吸引許多網友下單搶購再行詐。
Photo courtesy of a member of the public 照片：民眾提供
刑大估計自去年七月至今年二月，至少已有六十人受害，詐騙金額累計約一百二十多萬元，但方嫌全盤否認，辯稱不認識「周劫侖」、「周漁民」、「楊來過」，此三個臉書帳號也非他所有。
警方研判嫌犯利用此一手法，除了想製造民事糾紛假象，藉此逃避法律，同時讓被害人誤以為寄錯，藉此拖延帳號遭列警示帳戶，進而延長取得贓款時間。方男被逮後辯稱手機不是他的，警方將他依詐欺罪嫌移送法辦。（自由時報黃良傑）
A: Yet another shopping mall has just opened in Taipei. B: Do you mean the Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Nangang? A: Yeah, the shopping mall run by Japanese Mitsui & Co. opened last week. B: I hear the mall features about 300 stores, Vieshow Cinemas and Japanese Lopia supermarket. A: With the opening, a war is breaking out between Taipei’s department stores. A: 台北又有新的購物商場可逛啦。 B: 你是說Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport 南港？ A: 對啊這家日本三井集團旗下的商場上週開幕。 B: 聽說商場有威秀影城、樂比亞日系超市，還有多達300家專櫃。 A: 新商場一開幕，看來又要掀起一場百貨大戰啦！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張迪）
A: Hey, didn’t you go to the opening of the Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Nangang last week? B: Yeah, there are about 300 shops, including the first overseas branch of Japan’s Mahou Dokoro — a famous Harry Potter-themed store. A: Wow, I’ve always wanted to get a magic wand. B: There are also a bunch of great restaurants, such as Smart Fish hotpot restaurant. A: I wish I had Harry Potter’s “apparition” and “disapparition” magic, so I could teleport to the mall right now. A: 你上週不是有去LaLaport南港的盛大開幕嗎？有什麼特別的？ B: 那裡有多達300家專櫃，包括魔法之地的海外首店——它可是日本知名的《哈利波特》專賣店。 A: 哇我一直想買根魔杖。 B: 另外還有各式各樣的美食，像是林聰明沙鍋魚頭。 A: 真希望我也有哈利波特的「現影術／消影術」魔法，能瞬間移動到商場去！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張迪）
When it comes to movies, some people delight in watching spine-chilling horror films. Surprisingly, apart from containing a few scares, horror movies may also offer an unexpected __1__. According to a study, watching 90 minutes of a scary movie can burn an average of 113 calories, which is roughly __2__ to taking a 30-minute walk. Researchers from the University of Westminster carried out an experiment in which they __3__ participants’ oxygen intake, carbon dioxide output, and heart rates while they were watching horror movies without any distractions. The results revealed that physiological responses to fear play a crucial role
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