15 arrested in connection with online investment scam

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Wednesday it had arrested 15 people in connection with multiple cases of online investment fraud.

At a news conference, the CIB said that during a series of raids in June, authorities investigating online investment fraud arrested 15 people and seized one laptop, five mobile phones, one car, four bank accounts, one house, and NT$560,000 (US$17,217.54).

The suspects and evidence have been transferred to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office, the CIB said.

Investigations indicate that the operation was led by a man surnamed Wang (王), who had previous convictions on fraud and drug charges, the CIB said.

Wang recruited two network engineers, a woman and a man both surnamed Chiu (邱), who set up customized fake investment websites for several scam rings.

The two also provided services such as cloud server setting, backend website development, frontend website design, database building, domain name registration, customer services and mobile SMS verification, making them a system integration provider for scammers, said the CIB.

Between September 2023 and April 2024, the syndicate placed advertisements on social media, claiming to provide easy means to passive income and tricking victims into joining LINE groups, the CIB said.

The victims were then requested a NT$10,000 payment for further "investments" and hoaxed into more investments when they wanted to withdraw their "profits."

Police have uncovered at least 78 investment scam websites, 110 victims, with a total loss of NT$10.2 million and 160,000 Tether cryptocurrency coins, the CIB said.