Police over the weekend warned that human traffickers are using foreign brides and fake marriage citizenship deals to lure victims to Southeast Asia.
Other trafficking ploys involve offering people high-paying jobs overseas, but men are now being promised money to go to Thailand to marry a local woman, or to marry someone to gain citizenship, National Police Agency (NPA) officials said on Saturday.
One recent case led to the arrest of four people who face human trafficking and unlawful confinement charges, officials said, adding that they are allegedly members of a ring running the new foreign bride scam.
Victims are imprisoned and forced to work for online scammers, while organ harvesting is another risk, officials said.
A 32-year-old man surnamed Wang (王) said that he signed up last year to go to Thailand after seeing advertisements promising to match single men with young Thai women who were willing to marry them and live in Taiwan.
“I was told that even if I do not find any suitable brides, I could then enter into a fake marriage ... and get paid NT$150,000 as a reward,” said Wang, adding that this is a way for foreigners to obtain Taiwanese citizenship.
Wang said he flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand, in November last year, and was abducted by three muscular men after exiting the airport.
He said he was confined and then shoved into a car, which headed into the countryside toward Thailand’s border with Myanmar.
When he reached the border, he shouted and struggled, creating a commotion, and as the men did not want trouble, they dumped him and drove away, Wang said.
He said he then asked the Thai authorities for help.
Wang contacted a friend who has connections in Thailand, and they arranged a car to transport him back to Bangkok, where he stayed to receive other assistance, before returning to Taiwan in December last year, he said.
After returning home, Wang gave the authorities the name of the woman, surnamed Liao (廖), who used Facebook and other social media to circulate the foreign bride advertisements.
Police arrested Liao, 47, and three men in Taipei and Taoyuan, officials said.
Liao is an Indonesian who had married and settled in Taiwan, while the three men, surnamed Chen (陳), Huang (黃) and Hsu (許), were working for her, they said.
While being questioned, Liao said she was offered a reward of NT$250,000 for each person brought to Thailand, and was told to target single Taiwanese men aged between 30 and 40 by enticing them with photographs of young, good-looking women from Southeast Asian countries.
The NPA said this is connected to criminal groups operating Cambodian online scams.
The criminals bribe Thai customs officers to get their victims across the border, an official said.
People are advised to download the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “Travel Safety Guidance” (旅外安全指南) free mobile phone app, the NPA said in a news release.
“If you get into danger when overseas, the first thing to do is to contact Taiwan’s official representative or consular office in the country, which can then start to coordinate a rescue effort,” the NPA said.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
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