A cross-border fraud ring that defrauded people in Taiwan who donated to charities out of NT$34.09 million (US$1.138 million) has been busted and 50 suspects arrested, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said at a press conference Wednesday.
The system of a software company that managed the fundraising database for various charities in Taiwan was hacked, Yang Shih-yu (楊適瑜), deputy commander of the CIB’s 1st Investigation Corps, said.
That data breach provided the fraud ring with information on the victims, including their phone number and the amount of money they regularly donated to the charities, he added.
The Down Syndrome Association Taiwan and Dijiama Social Welfare Foundation, affiliated with the famous Taichung Dajia Jenn Lann Mazu Temple, were among the charities whose names were used by the scammers, Yang said.
The criminal ring, which called its victims from China, tricked them into believing the donations they made had not gone through. They then followed the instructions the scammers gave to them to change the settings on money transfer details using an ATM machine that resulted in their donations being transferred to bank accounts belonging to members of the ring, Yang said.
At lease 188 people were tricked into making “donations” to 45 charities since July 2021, according to Yang.
A total of 48 suspects– allegedly responsible for withdrawing the cash from the bank accounts– were arrested between September 2021 and May 2022, he added.
Further investigation revealed that some of the victims were duped into remitting money to multiple e-wallet accounts owned by a company based in New Taipei’s Xinzhuang District at online shopping platform Shopee, he said.
Two men surnamed Lo (羅) and Chen (陳) were arrested on May 24 when the CIB raided the company’s office, Yang said, adding that they had colluded with the ring’s operations in China and used stablecoin Tether to launder the money in an effort to obstruct the police investigation.
Lo and Chen were referred to New Taipei District Prosecutors Office’s for investigation on charges of fraud and money laundering before being released on bail, Yang said.
If found guilty, the two men face a maximum of seven years in jail.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel