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Publish Date：2022-05-18

Update Date：2022-05-18

Units：Criminal Information Division

Taiwan-Singapore Joint Collaboration to Break Counterfeit Card Syndicate Laundering money by stealing points from coffee chain stores (1110518)
  1. Investigation unit: Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutors Office, CIB International Criminal Affairs Division, Xinyi Precinct of Taipei City Police Department, Criminal Investigation Corps of New Taipei City Police Department, Yongkang Precinct of Tainan City Police Department
  2. Date of Seizure: March 29, 2022
  3. Location of Seizure: New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Tainan City
  4. Suspects Arrested: 5 suspects, including Tsai ○○ (born in 1983)
  5. Illicit gains and evidence seized: 2 card printing machines, 1 cash counting machine, 1 computer, 1 magnetic stripe reading and writing device, 382 blank chip cards, 54 blank cards (without chips), 41 UnionPay cards, 3 printed white cards, 37 stored value cards of coffee chains, 3 bank cards, 8 credit cards, 19 bank passbooks, 7 mobile phones, 2 sim cards, 1 USB flash drive, 1 batch of merchandises from coffee chains and other evidence.
  6. Summary of Criminal Case:
  • The International Criminal Affairs Division of the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) received a notification from the Singapore Police Force (SPF) that the victims in Singapore had received an email from a fake post office, claiming that the delivery of a package had failed, and that pre-payment was needed before the next delivery attempt. The victims clicked on the phishing link and followed the website's instructions to enter his credit card number and OTP password, then found that his credit card was tied to "Apple Pay" and immediately afterwards, the credit card was used to buy stored value points from a Taiwanese coffee chain. The CIB cooperated with the SPF and reported to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office to lead the investigation.
  • After investigating the case, it was found that the suspect Li ○○ recruited members and set up a phishing website to send emails or text messages to scam victims. After the victims clicked on the provided links and entered their credit card/UnionPay card numbers and OTP passwords, the victims' credit card/UnionPay card information would be stolen and recreated as counterfeit cards (credit card/UnionPay card). The members of the criminal group would then bind the cards with mobile payment platforms such as "Apple Pay" and proceed to the physical stores of the coffee chain companies, where they would purchase stored value cards with the counterfeit credit card/UnionPay cards and then sell the stored value cards to the third parties at a lower discount in exchange for cash.
  • Eyeing the popularity of the coffee chain's products in Taiwan, the scam group took advantage of the coffee chain's occasional promotions and rack up additional purchases with counterfeit cards, which could amount to NT$1 million in just one week during the promotion period, which is then sold at a lower discount downstream for profit. Because the points on the stored value card are equivalent to cash, the method is used to launder money across borders for illicit gain.  Within a year, the criminal group made a profit of nearly NT$10 million, with victims spread throughout the world.
  • On March 29, 2022, the CIB’s International Criminal Affairs Division, Xinyi Precinct of Taipei City Police Department, Criminal Investigation Corps of New Taipei City Police Department, Yongkang Precinct of Tainan City Police Department jointly formed a task force to arrest five suspects, including the ringleader surnamed Tsai and seized evidence such as card  printing machines, blank chip cards, UnionPay cards and stored value cards. The case was referred to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office for expanded investigation.
  • The CIB urges the public not to click on unknown SMS or email links and to be careful when asked to fill in credit card / UnionPay card information. In particular, OTP (One Time Password) should never be provided to anyone at will. Furthermore, if you purchase products or  points that are significantly below market value, you may unwittingly become an accomplice to a crime. The public is advised not to buy unreasonably low priced products or store value cards to avoid violating the law.