38 Taiwanese nabbed for credit card fraud

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested 38 Taiwanese nationals in Parañaque City early yesterday morning, for allegedly being cohorts of the 24 Taiwanese and Chinese nationals earlier deported to the People’s Republic of China for their involvement in online credit card fraud that victimized foreigners.

Palmer Mallari, chief of the NBI’s technical investigation division (TID), said a total of 25 Taiwanese were nabbed when agents raided their safe house at Lot 1, Block 5, Galatia street, Multinational Village, Parañaque City and another 13 were collared during the raid at No. 421 Orbit street, Aeropark, Don Bosco, Better Living Subdivision. Mallari said several credit cards were also confiscated during the raids in both houses.

“The sala of the house has a strong semblance to a call center. There were many computers and Internet connections and routers, which they used in their operations,” said Mallari.

He said the syndicate commits fraud through online purchase; transfer of account from a credit card to a local account and withdrawal of the money using the automated teller machine; and the sale of non-existent products to credit card users.

 “If there is a customer abroad, he will pay 50 percent, but there will be no product. If there is shipment, it only contains rocks or sand or fake items. The names on the shipment are not the names of the real owners of the shipment,” he said.

Mallari said they have yet to establish the identities of the suspect because they wrote their names in Chinese characters.

“We are still waiting for representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) to get their true names as their passports could also be faked,” said Mallari.