484 suspects nabbed in cross-border telephone fraud case

2012/05/25  Taipei, May 25 (CNA) Another Taiwanese-led telephone fraud ring that mainly operated overseas and targeted mainland Chinese has been broken up through cross-border police cooperation, leading to the arrest of 484 suspects in various countries, Taiwanese police said Friday.

The suspects, who include 300 Taiwanese and 165 Chinese nationals, were captured in Taiwan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Fiji, according to Lin Yuan-cheng, acting captain of the second investigation brigade of the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB).

The first group of 45 Taiwanese suspects were repatriated home from Cambodia Friday.

Lin said the CIB launched an investigation into the case late last year after being notified by Chinese police that a Jiangsu Province woman had been swindled out of 12 million Chinese yuan (US$1.89 million) in November.

Police found that the criminal ring was very well organized and large in size, with bases in different countries across Asia, he said.

The investigation has found that the ring members posed as police, prosecutors and bank staff to swindle money out of their victims, Lin said.

(By Yang Sz-ruei and Y.F. Low)
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