Second wave of fraud investigation by the bureau seizes nearly 60 million New Taiwan Dollars, counterfeit money dealers identified as money laundering channel for fraud ring

According to reports from UDN News and CNA, the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice carried out the second wave of anti-fraud operations before and after the Chinese New Year. They mobilized 17 field offices, investigated 33 cases, summoned 152 individuals, and detained 18 people. They seized illegal gains of approximately 5,755 Taiwanese dollars at the fraud group's locations.

Image Source: Police Times

Investigation Bureau's Second Wave of Crackdown on Fraud, Seizing 57.55 Million NTD

The focus of the investigation includes investment fraud cases involving cryptocurrency exchanges and "telecom system vendors." The Investigation Bureau pointed out that current fraudulent practices often utilize online communities such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and VPN servers, in conjunction with virtual currencies.

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Counterfeit Currency Exchangers, Real Money Laundering

Investigators pointed out that mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and USDT have become the new favorites for fraud.

Users purchase coins from individual cryptocurrency exchanges. Despite signing a "virtual currency trading contract" and providing anti-money laundering compliance statements to gain the trust of users, the reality is that most so-called individual cryptocurrency exchanges are operated by impostors collaborating with fraud syndicates to launder money, evolving into criminal organizations engaged in "Counterfeit Currency Exchanging, Real Money Laundering."

Scamming with Shitcoins

The Investigation Bureau's analysis indicates that fraud syndicates target "shitcoins" and "air coins" for investment scams, exploiting the public's lack of knowledge about cryptocurrencies and their desire for quick wealth, deceiving investors into making purchases and ultimately causing them heavy losses.

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"Cat Pool" Group Sends Out a Large Number of Fraudulent Text Messages

Fraud syndicates in the form of "telecom system vendors" make use of devices like "cat pools" and other DMT equipment to make group calls for fraud purposes.

According to reports, the so-called "cat pool" phone data machine is a mobile expansion device that can currently support up to 32 SIM cards, purchased from China for only 20,000 NTD.

Due to the ability of "cat pools" to support multiple SIM cards at once, besides being able to send and receive verification codes for numerous phone numbers simultaneously, fraud syndicates also use them to send thousands of fraudulent text messages, earning them the nickname "fraud black box."