Scams in the Family

My wife got a long phone call last night...

Taiwan is overrun with scams. The usual strategy is to get you to transfer your money into their account, which they promptly clean out. The accounts are opened in the name of homeless people, or dead people, and cannot be traced. Often there is cooperation from inside the banks and other institutions.

The other day my wife's second aunt is at home and gets a call. The speaker identified himself as the police, and said that her account had been hijacked by fraudsters. She needed to transfer her money out into a safe account, the number of which he gave her.

Mortified, she ran down to the bank and immediately began to apply for the transfer. The young lady at the bank, however, instantly appreciated what was going on, and gently told her that she was being scammed. My aunt was insistent, however, and told the woman sharply that she'd take all her money out of the bank if this transfer wasn't permitted. The teller could have simply gotten angry and let my aunt destroy her life savings, but instead turned the other cheek, and called for the manager, who apprehended the situation at once, and pressed the button for the local police. They arrived and remonstrated with my aunt, who still wouldn't give. Finally, the policeman talked her into taking him back to her house. "They'll call again, for sure, to see why you haven't transferred the money."

Sure enough, when they got home, the scammer called. The policeman answered, and when he identified himself as a policeman, they hung up. At that point, my aunt began to think maybe she had been wrong.

Meanwhile the policeman went downstairs to the people who rent the space in front of my aunt's building, selling breakfast and jewelry, respectively. He explained to them what was going on, and told them that they need to keep an eye out, since the scammers know that my aunt has money.

The following day a man dressed in post office uniform and carrying a letter arrived at my aunt's, climbing to the third floor and knocking on her door. He stopped at the grating that protected the door, and told my aunt that she had a letter, and needed her chop. She ran back into the house to fetch the chop, and when she came back out, he also asked for her ID. Recall that with a chop and an ID, you can open and close bank accounts, and transfer money.

This made my aunt suspicious, since only a chop is required to sign for the letter. "I've been getting letters since I was a kid, and I have never had to show my ID," she told him The man pushed her hard to give him the ID, saying it was a special letter and required ID, that this was a different case, and so forth. She raised her voice, and the people from downstairs, and others from in the building, came out to see what was going on. They crowded the man in, but he shoved them out of the way and ran down the stairs. But now the scammers know she has money.

Scary, eh? But so common........

[Taiwan] [scams]