Joint Taiwan-China police operation arrests 600 fraud suspects
Updated
Taiwanese and Chinese police have cracked phone fraud rings across Asia, arresting nearly 600 suspects.
The mostly Taiwainese and Chinese suspects were discovered across six countries, with many being deported back to their home country via chartered plane.
Presenter: Chito Santos
Speakers: Dr Mark Gregory, senior lecturer in network engineering at RMIT University; Lo Chih-chen, president of Taiwan Brain Trust
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SANTOS: Relations between Taiwan and China haven't always been great.
But this time, the two nations have worked together, in a joint operation that has nabbed 598 phone fraud suspects.
Liao Jinrong, deputy director of China's Criminal Investigation Department praised police from both sides of the Taiwan Strait for their cooperative efforts.
SFX: Liao Jinrong talking in Mandarin, fades
SANTOS: We couldn't succeed in this action without the close cooperation between the police in mainland China and Taiwan, he says. Police across the strait have for many times consulted, communicated and coordinated with each other on this case.
The crackdown was one of the largest Asia's ever seen, with raids occurring in 160 locations across six different countries. Police planned and investigated for three months before taking action, with arrests being made in Taiwan, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Dr Mark Gregory, a senior lecturer in network engineering at RMIT University says telephone fraud is an ongoing problem across Asia.
GREGORY: It's really become a big business now, with billions of dollars of fraud occuring annually.
SANTOS: The suspects mainly targeted people in China and Taiwan, placing phone calls over the internet to try and scam money out of their victims.
They would use the internet phone services to make their calls appear as if they came from another country, adding to the scam's effect.
GREGORY: You're generally looking at fraud that gives an instant hit, and instant way to get access to the victim's funds. This is the interesting nature of frauds and crime that has been happening around the world, is that you find these boiler room tactics being set up in different geographic areas using people that people in those areas would be comfortable to hear from, so therefore in southeast Asia people would be comfortable to hear from people that could speak the local languages, have accents that match the local geographic areas... so they're using people that the victims are going to be happy to hear from.
SANTOS: One scam involves luring victims to make purchases for products that don't exist. Another scam has the caller pose as a bank or government official, requesting banking details or transfers of funds.
Fraudsters have been forced to move to other countries to carry out their activities, due to crackdowns in China and Taiwan. Criminals would rent out apartments with internet connections, and use them to place hundreds or even thousands of calls per day.
Dr Gregory believes the efforts by police won't have much effect on phone fraud in the region.
GREGORY: The recent arrests that have been made is really a drop in the ocean. People behind these activities will quickly reconstitute these boiler rooms and continue on.
SANTOS: The operation marks the first time Taiwan and China have worked together with other south-east Asian countries to fight crime. Wang Cho-chun, head of Taiwan's National Police Agency told Taiwanese press the operation has "set a new trend in joint crime-fighting."
Lo Chih-cheng, president of Taiwanese think tank Taiwan Brain Trust says the diplomatic effort is a step in the right direction.
LO: I think all the countries in the region realise that it's important and it's imperative for all the countries to coooperate with crimefighting. So it's not just a one-sided approach. I think it's bilateral cooperation or multilateral cooperation among all the nations in the region.
SANTOS: Taiwan and China signed an agreement in 2009 to better work together to fight crime - Mr Lo thinks that this trend will continue.
LO: There's a need for both sides to cooperate on fighting these kinds of crimes. I think this cooperation will continue as long as both sides realise that it helps both sides to have this kind of cooperation to continue.
