TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taichung City Police on Saturday (Oct. 28) identified 68 victims of a scam involving purchases of electronic products with cardless installment.
Two suspects, including a communications store owner, both surnamed Lin, have been arrested in the scheme primarily targeting university students in central Taiwan.
Police seized 22 mobile phones, three computers, over NT＄580,000 in cash, 18 passbooks, multiple contract documents, and other related evidence.
The suspects deceived students into buying electronics such as mobile phones and laptops by falsely claiming they'd receive NT＄5,000 cash for purchasing them through cardless installments. Only when the victims received the payment notifications from debt collectors did they discover the deceit.
The contracts initially appealed to the victims through purported benefits of boosting sales performance, which offered the students a reward of NT＄5,000 for high-priced electronics purchases made through installment contracts and referral fees ranging from NT＄2,000 to NT＄4,000 if they could convince friends to do the same.
According to the police, the students never received the promised electronics, and although the suspects guaranteed they would fully pay the installment loans, they only made a few payments, leaving victims to be pursued by debt collectors.