Police bust swindling rings in raids across Asia
01:06 UTC+8 June 11, 2011
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SWINDLING rings busted around Asia had duped tens of thousands of victims, mostly on Chinese mainland and Taiwan, through a variety of scams, Taiwan police said yesterday after 598 suspects were arrested.
Police in the mainland and Taiwan had been investigating the rings for three months and the coordinated raids on Thursday at 160 locations was the largest crime crackdown across Asia, Taiwan police chief Wang Cho-chun said.
In one scam, the suspects placed phone calls over the Internet and lured victims to make purchases that were never delivered, he said.
Thai authorities described a scam in which swindlers called victims in the guise of being from their bank and fooled them into transferring funds. And Malaysian police said suspects fooled victims into believing they had to send money to pay traffic or court summonses that did not exist.
Among those arrested, 411 were from Taiwan and 180 from Chinese mainland. They also included three Thais, two South Koreans, and one citizen each from Cambodia and Vietnam, according to Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau.
Indonesia said 170 people were arrested there, and Cambodia counted 167 arrests. Malaysian federal police told the New Straits Times that 37 people were arrested there.
The suspects arrested in Cambodia were due to be deported by air to Chinese mainland and Taiwan last night, according to police in Cambodia and Taiwan.
The ringleaders, mostly Taiwan people, first recruited people to help conduct phone frauds from the mainland. Following tough crackdowns they then moved to Southeast Asia from where they continued to conduct the frauds, Wang said.
Authorities in Chinese mainland and Taiwan have agreed to repatriate suspects to their own hometowns for prosecution.
Police in the mainland and Taiwan had been investigating the rings for three months and the coordinated raids on Thursday at 160 locations was the largest crime crackdown across Asia, Taiwan police chief Wang Cho-chun said.
In one scam, the suspects placed phone calls over the Internet and lured victims to make purchases that were never delivered, he said.
Thai authorities described a scam in which swindlers called victims in the guise of being from their bank and fooled them into transferring funds. And Malaysian police said suspects fooled victims into believing they had to send money to pay traffic or court summonses that did not exist.
Among those arrested, 411 were from Taiwan and 180 from Chinese mainland. They also included three Thais, two South Koreans, and one citizen each from Cambodia and Vietnam, according to Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau.
Indonesia said 170 people were arrested there, and Cambodia counted 167 arrests. Malaysian federal police told the New Straits Times that 37 people were arrested there.
The suspects arrested in Cambodia were due to be deported by air to Chinese mainland and Taiwan last night, according to police in Cambodia and Taiwan.
The ringleaders, mostly Taiwan people, first recruited people to help conduct phone frauds from the mainland. Following tough crackdowns they then moved to Southeast Asia from where they continued to conduct the frauds, Wang said.
Authorities in Chinese mainland and Taiwan have agreed to repatriate suspects to their own hometowns for prosecution.
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