A man and a woman in Taichung were sentenced for their involvement in a fraud case that had 117 victims in Canada, the US and other countries.
Six people were arrested last year, including a 38-year-old man surnamed Huang (黃) and a 35-year-old woman surnamed Hsieh (謝), when the Taichung City Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Corps officers raided a property in the city’s Beitun District (北屯).
Police found computers and cellphones at the property where the suspects allegedly had been engaging in fraud targeting Chinese living overseas, Taichung District Court documents showed.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Huang and Hsieh allegedly pretended to be members of a telecommunications company, falsely claiming that the victim’s phone number had been used for criminal activity in China, and that they would assist them in reporting the case to the Chinese Public Security Bureau, an investigation found.
They would then make a second phone call impersonating a Chinese officer, who would say that the victim was suspected of involvement in money laundering and that their assets would be frozen.
Hsieh also hired a 33-year-old university graduate surnamed Chen (陳), who is fluent in English, to speak to the victims in English as a means of adding legitimacy to their claims of representing a large telecommunications company, the documents showed.
Hsieh had previously served eight years for fraud, and had joined Huang shortly after release from prison to commit fraud again, the police said.
Hsieh and Chen received six and three-year prison sentences respectively for their involvement in the case.
During the raid, Hsieh and Huang had attempted to destroy the evidence, and threw phones out the window, police said, adding that they allegedly had defrauded people of NT$10 million in total.
The court has not yet ruled on Huang’s case.
SCENARIOS: A potential conflict with Beijing would not be similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China would target energy and food supplies, a researcher said China is likely to continue using economic and cyberoperations against Taiwan to force it to capitulate without resorting to a military attack, Fox News reported yesterday, citing the outcome of a tabletop exercise. Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) earlier this month held a tabletop exercise in Taipei focusing on Beijing’s use of economic and cybercoercion against Taiwan. The FDD mentioned an “anaconda strategy,” in which Beijing would likely use cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns followed by a blockade or other measures to strangulate Taiwan, rather than attempting an invasion, the report said. A large-scale cyberattack would be
HSINCHU CASES: Five people among 35 who were reported being sick were still in hospital after eating at a vendor in a market in Jhubei, the local health agency said Thirty-five people have sought medical treatment for acute symptoms after allegedly eating banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) from a vendor in Jhubei City (竹北), the Hsinchu County Public Health Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said that since Saturday, it has received several reports of suspected food poisoning from hospitals. The vendor has been ordered to temporarily suspend its business, it said, adding that tests were being conducted to determine whether the people had food poisoning, with results expected in about two weeks. A preliminary investigation showed that the people who sought treatment had recently eaten banh mi at a vendor at a retail market
GOOD MODEL: Speaking at his book launch, Law said that Taiwan is the most democratic Chinese-speaking country, which is why Hong Kongers relocated here China has suffocated Hong Kong’s civil society and its next target could be Taiwan, Nathan Law (羅冠聰), cofounder of the disbanded pro-democracy Hong Kong political party Demosisto, said in Taipei yesterday. Law made the remarks at a launch in Taipei for his book When the Wind Blows — the Struggles for Freedom of Hong Kong (時代推著我們前行:羅冠聰的香港備忘錄). Law has been living in the UK since he fled Hong Kong in 2020, and the book is about his fighting for the cause of freedom in the area. He was granted political asylum in 2021. “Fleeing is a long and distressing process, but it also
IMITATING OTHERS? Tsai Ing-wen’s office said the former president rents a commercial unit for her personal office and had never used election funds to purchase real estate Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday confirmed that he used about NT$43 million (US$1.35 million) from his presidential election subsidy to purchase an office unit near the Legislative Yuan in May. Ko made the remarks after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) earlier in the day told a news conference that she received a tip-off that the TPP chairman had purchased a 48.76 ping (161.2m2) office unit at Jinan Building (濟南大樓), a commercial building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正). Lin said that Ko purchased the unit on May 10, paying about NT$43 million in cash,