Recently, Ms. Zhuo from New Taipei City received a phone call from fraudsters pretending to be her son in urgent need of money. She then made multiple cash transfers to the scammers through deposits at the bank counter and without passbook. Later, she received another call, from fraudsters impersonating as personnel from the Bank of Taiwan, claiming that the recipient of her funds was on the watch list. They instructed her to dial 165 during the call to verify the situation. Subsequently, she was connected to scammers pretending to be police officers handling an international fraud case. The scammers provided fake financial institution account numbers and urged her to apply for a designated online account. They also asked her to hand over her iPost account number and password, as well as to release her fixed deposits, cancel her investment funds, take out loans against her insurance policies and her house, and transfer all the funds into dummy accounts controlled by the fraudsters. The fraudsters even instructed her to delete the LINE chat history. Later, as Ms. Zhuo inquired about the investigation status with the Taiwan New Taipei District Prosecutors Office and the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the National Police Agency, she found no record of the case, realizing she had been scammed. In total, she lost more than NT$20 million.
The CIB stated that this was a complex fraud scheme involving two stages: initially, the fraudsters impersonated a family member to borrow money, and later, they used the "fake police" method to continue scamming. The fraudsters posed as representatives from financial institutions, claiming that Ms. Zhuo's money transfers were directed to a watch-listed account. They then instructed her to dial 165 to verify the situation, but the call was actually transferred to another member of the fraud ring.
The CIB also reminded the public to remain alert when receiving unknown phone calls and to follow the principle of "listen, hang up, and verify." Always hang up first and then verify the information. If the caller insists on not ending the conversation and requests that you dial 165 for verification, it is a scam call, and you should immediately end the conversation. If you find that you have been scammed, call the anti-fraud hotline 165 or 110 for help.
Source from：National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior
