Fraud rings once active in China and Taiwan have relocated to Southeast Asian countries

Fraud rings once active in China and Taiwan have relocated to Southeast Asian countries after Beijing and Taipei reinforced cooperation in fighting cross-border crime, senior Taiwanese police officers said.
These criminal organizations swindled money from victims in Taiwan by calling them and “warning” them of “potential financial losses” because of supposed system failures.
However, many of these crime rings were driven from Taiwan to China after police intensified moves to crack down on telecommunications fraud, said a senior officer at the Criminal Investigation Bureau, who declined to be named.
Following the signing in April 2009 of an agreement between Taiwan and China to launch joint efforts to combat crime and provide mutual judicial assistance, fraud activities across the Taiwan Strait also dropped.
Citing data from Taiwan and China, the officer said that under the cross-strait cooperation pact, 218 fraud suspects were arrested in Taiwan and China in June last year.
Two months later, another 450 suspects were arrested, the police officer said.
As the crackdown on the fraud rings intensified, the bureau discovered that they were relocating to Southeast Asian cities, including Bangkok and Pattaya in Thailand, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta.
He said these cities had become havens for criminals because of their geographic proximity to Taiwan and China and the presence of Chinese-speaking communities, which have the means to transfer money to or from Taiwan or China.
It is like “the relocation of an industry,” the officer said.
Bureau statistics show there were 2,070 fewer telephone fraud cases last year, with losses declining by NT$862.46 million (US$29.26 million).
Internet fraud also dropped, with 2,342 fewer cases last year than the year before, and losses declining by NT$392.59 million, data showed.
These efforts have not totally eradicated the problem, however, because of the increasingly sophisticated technology employed by criminals, police officers in the bureau’s crime investigation and prevention sections said.