Reporting by reporter LI,CHIEH / photography by CHENG,I-HSIANG
Release time: 2025/04/04 18:14
Last updated: 2025/04/04 19:36
U.S. President Trump announced an increase in tariffs, fearing that it would affect the domestic economy and escalate “fraud”! According to statistics from the Police Department, in the first quarter of this year, there were 10,000 fraud cases every month, with financial losses exceeding 22.5 billion. The police strictly cracked down on fraud. However, they also found that after the end of November last year, although many virtual currency dealers “completed registration” in accordance with the regulations of the Financial Supervisory Commission, no one seemed to check the daily cash transaction volume of hundreds of millions in Shuangbei City, for fear of hiding stolen money.
Reporter LI,CHIEH: “The domestic economy is facing an impact, and fraud is increasing instead of decreasing. Let’s analyze the domestic fraud situation in the first quarter of 2025. From January to March, there were more than 10,000 fraud cases every month, and the financial losses were even as high as 6 billion to 9.5 billion. The police have stepped up their efforts to crack down on fraud, but there are still many people being defrauded. According to statistics, the largest increase in the number of fraud reports is in New Taipei City, and the highest amount of financial losses is in Taoyuan.”
U.S. President Trump has announced an increase in tariffs. Some scholars estimate that Taiwan’s exports to the United States may be reduced by 60%, fearing that fraud will be rampant due to a poor economy.
Wang Po-Chi, associate professor of the Department of Criminal Justice at Ming Chuan University: “Trump will probably impose more tariffs on Taiwan this time. Some aspects of people’s livelihood expenditures may also increase as a result, which may lead to some activities in what we commonly call the underground economy. Those who may need to make quick money will engage in fraudulent activities.”
Spotting the desire for money, the fraud group focused its firepower on “investment” and created the illusion of profit.
Bank clerk vs. police officer: “Miss, please wait a moment. I’ll check to see if the situation is okay, because there are really a lot of frauds nowadays, and I already know a lot about them.”
Bank clerks are now very alert. It is difficult for fraud groups to transfer money at the counter, and the stolen money is almost converted into virtual currency and washed out.
Senior criminal police officer: “After November 30 last year, the Financial Supervisory Commission started to control virtual asset operators. There were a lot of street currency dealers in the greater Taipei area. The street transaction volume exceeded 100 million every day. No invoices were issued for cash transactions. They evaded a lot of taxes and did not go through our sealing and control system.”
The degree of encryption of virtual currencies is high. I am afraid that the decisive battle point for future investigations will still be in the Internet world. I am afraid that after currency merchants register in accordance with regulations, the government will think that there is no problem and will not send people to check and track in time. During this period, fraud groups frequently set breakpoints, making it even more difficult to recover in the future.