1. Investigating unit: Taiwan New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, CIB International Criminal Affairs Division, Zhonghe Precinct and Tucheng Precinct of the New Taipei City Police Department; Guishan Precinct, Taoyuan Police Department; and the Taipei Military Police Corps.
2. Investigating unit: Taiwan New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, CIB International Criminal Affairs Division, Zhonghe Precinct and Tucheng Precinct of the New Taipei City Police Department; Guishan Precinct, Taoyuan Police Department; and the Taipei Military Police Corps.
3. Location: Taipei City, New Taipei City
4. Suspects: 1 suspect surnamed Chen and 14 other suspects.
5. Confiscation and evidence:
   20 mobile phones and tablets, approximately NT$30,000 in cash, various luxury items, and clothing worn on the crime scene.
6. Case summary:                                                                                                                                                       The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) received reports from a renowned e-commerce platform that members with e-payment apps linked to their credit cards had fallen victims to credit card fraud. Knowing being victimized, many of them urgently reported the case to the platform and banks. An investigation carried out by a special task force resulted in an arrest of a mule who later led CIB to apprehend the main suspect, surnamed Chen. Further investigations confirmed that Chen had collaborated with Chinese hackers to instruct Taiwanese suspects in the recruitment of mules to carry out the credit card frauds. The details are as follows:
   1. From November to December in 2022, Chen and Chinese hackers breached the databases of e-  commerce platforms in Taiwan, and illegally obtained members’ account passwords to gain access to e-payment apps. They then continued to instruct cash mules to carry out credit card fraud by purchasing essence of chicken gift boxes, fine wine, gold jewelry, PS5 gaming consoles, and other high valued items.Subsequently, they w sold those illicit products by purchasing with groups for profits.
   2. Chen had learned to set up a phishing website by researching online, and used it to illegally obtain credit card information of more than a million users from Japan, Canada, the US, and Thailand. From August to October 2022, Chen worked with Chinese hackers to commit credit card fraud by ordering cosmetics, perfume, Airpods, and other items from a well-known e-commerce platform in Taiwan. Afterwards, the mules would retrieve the goods and sell them elsewhere for profit. In the meantime, Chen was involved in using foreign credit cards to top up on a payment app before selling it to towing services companies in exchange for oil with lower price. During a police investigation in August 2022, Chen and an accomplice surnamed Hsieh were not prosecuted on the charges of instigating others to take the blame.
   3. In November 2022, together Chen and a Chinese hacked to use a loophole of renowned food delivery service platforms, where they would randomly fill in credit card numbers with fake identities and made purchases of products such as baby formulas and pricy gift boxes of cubilose. Afterwards they would sell them from online groups for a making profits.

      Section Hong from the Taiwan New Taipei District Prosecutors Office led the investigation and carried out 6 search operations in the early of 2023. Chen and other 14 suspects were busted of assisting in the disposal of goods, recruiting mules, and theft of credit cards All of them were under investigation on the offences of involvement in fraudulent, against computer security, forgery, violation of the Money Laundering Control Act and the Organized Crime Prevention Act. Chen and 3 accomplices were detained by court of laws. As far as known,there are more than a hundred victims and the estimated loss is reached more than NT$3 million.The e-commerce platforms are still assessing the total loss. 
      This credit card fraud group alonged with hackers to interfere Taiwan’s financial orderness, profiting off credit card information stolen from victims across the world. Fortunately, justice managed to prevail and thanks to the task force’s efforts. The CIB sincerely reminds the public to make sure that they only download e-payment apps with a 3-D Secure protocol, and not to click on any suspicious phishing websites to ensure the security of their personal information. To avoid falling victim to credit card fraud groups, the public should also not install apps from unknown sources and those with backdoor programs, which may result in text messages from fraudsters.