Police warned people about fraud on dating sites and social media platforms, citing a recent incident, in which a man was scammed out of NT$700,000.
The man, surnamed Liu (劉), last year signed up for a dating site and was asked to pay to become an “approved member,” the Keelung Police Bureau said.
Then he started chatting with a woman, it said.
Photo copied by Wu Sheng-ju, Taipei Times
“We kept on chatting. Then she asked me to make an online donation to boost her popularity,” Liu was quoted by the bureau as saying.
When Liu requested to meet in person, the woman said he needed to upgrade his membership by paying NT$90,000 so that they can meet up at a hotel room, and he complied, it said.
After that, the dating site’s customer service asked Liu to pay a “safety fee” to guarantee the woman’s safety, and he paid NT$60,000 in additional fees, it said.
Liu booked a hotel room, but nobody showed up, so he called the site’s customer service line to complain, it said.
“The customer service worker laughed and said he could file a lawsuit. They said that the site’s managers were in China,” it said. “Liu realized he was scammed, so he reported the case to police.”
Police made preliminary inquiries, finding that the photo of the woman was taken from the Internet, it said, adding that it would be difficult to identify the people behind the scam.
“It took a great deal of effort to deal with the bank so that they identify Liu as a fraud victim. It took eight months of talks and presenting evidence to successfully return about NT$70,000 to him,” Keelung Police Bureau criminal investigation head Kuo Ching-ju (郭憬融) said.
“Liu is very lucky,” Kuo said. “In most other cases, people do not get any money back.”
“Images of beautiful women can be easily found online and used by criminal groups to deceive people on dating sites,” Kuo said.
In such cases, members of criminal groups often find an excuse to demand that their victims wire some money, Kuo said, urging people to be careful when they use dating Web sites and apps.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS