Two men were taken into custody in Taichung yesterday over an alleged illegal loan scheme targeting university students.
Police said that people were allegedly given NT$5,000 in cash to sign a “loan installment payment plan,” but wound up owing much more to a financial company.
Taichung prosecutors said that they coordinated with city police to apprehend the two suspects, a 27-year-old salesman and his manager, 34, both surnamed Lin (林).
Photo: Taipei Times
The two Lins approached students on university campuses, initially targeting Feng Chia University, urging them to buy computers or smartphones through a loan scheme with no credit card required, prosecutors said.
They offered NT$5,000 cash for signing the contract, with promises of a further NT$3,000 for each fellow student they convinced to sign up, they said.
“Many students signed up and persuaded their friends to do the same,” a police investigator said. “Many people were victimized because they lacked experience in dealing with wider society. The operators preyed on students seeking small loans and easy payments to upgrade to high-end computers and mobile phones.”
However, the students this month began to receive debt payment notices in the mail, as the Lins sold the contracts to a financial company, the officer said.
The students who had signed contracts reported owing NT$50,000 to NT$150,000, they said.
Taichung police said that more than 300 people linked to about a dozen colleges in the region have been affected, including students at Feng Chia, Providence University, Tunghai University, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Chienkuo Technology University in Changhua County and National Formosa University in Yunlin County.
One student told police that he signed up because could receive N$5,000 cash right away and get more money by signing up fellow students.
Salesman Lin promised it was just a simple transaction and that the contract would not be transferred, the student told police.
Taichung police said that they had questioned the two Lins and obtained warrants to search their residences, where they allegedly found signed loan contracts.
Police said that they seized three computers, 22 mobile phones, 18 bank books, cash and signed purchase agreements for electronics.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
‘NEW NORMAL’: A Japanese official said the drills show that the PLA can carry out large maneuvers without announcement, ‘leaving all of us struggling to respond’ Beijing’s recent naval exercises have left Taiwan and the US “struggling” for a response as the two nations drew different conclusions about the implications of the Chinese military drills, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Sunday. Taiwan has been bracing for China to hold military drills to retaliate against President William Lai’s (賴清德) diplomatic visits abroad, the outlet said, referring to Lai’s Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 tour to Taiwan’s three South Pacific allies, which included stopovers in Hawaii and Guam. Beijing announced partial air traffic restrictions across seven time zones along its coast from Shanghai to Hong Kong over two days. Yet,
CONNECTED: A survey of students from third grade to university seniors showed that 80% had cellphones, spending on average 37.27 hours per week on them Line users in Taiwan made an average of 100 million voice or video calls each day this year, while “like/thumbs up” was the most frequently used emoji in reaction to a message on the service, the Tokyo-based operator of the messaging app said yesterday. The app’s ability to adjust the quality of video and voice calls helps contribute to its frequent use, LY Corp said in a statement. As of Nov. 30, Line users in Taiwan spent an average of about one hour per day on the app, often checking it in the morning for messages that might have come through overnight,
RSS