The wife of a company chairman in Taiwan fell for an overseas scam syndicate's trap after believing a weight loss pill ad on Facebook in the middle of last year. She was swindled out of more than NT$150 million (about RM19 million) before realizing and recently rushed to report the case to the police. The case is currently being investigated under the direction of the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.
According to the Liberty Times on the 8th, in mid-last year, the chairman's wife saw an ad for weight loss pills posted by the scam group on Facebook. She was drawn in by various sales pitches, such as guarantees of losing weight in 7 days, and added the scammers on LINE to contact them. She started ordering the weight loss pills via cash on delivery, each time receiving a large box of pills. Believing the pills had significant effects, she continued buying them, ultimately spending more than NT$25 million.
After defrauding her of a large amount, the scam group, emboldened by their success, took advantage of knowing from the LINE chats that the chairman's wife was interested in Chinese and Western medicine research. They claimed to be someone from Hong Kong who could help her become president of the Global Association of Chinese and Western Medicine, piquing her interest. Subsequently, they asked her to pay a hefty membership fee to join the association, instructing her to transfer hundreds of thousands of US dollars to an overseas bank account under this pretense.
Believing them, and thinking that joining the association could benefit her own business, she continued to trust the scammers. In addition to buying weight loss pills, she was also persuaded to wire large sums of US dollars as a security deposit under the guise of association membership. It was not until recently, when the scam group realized she could no longer continue transferring money and abruptly cut off contact, that she sensed something was wrong. She quickly called the police to consult, only to discover she had been scammed out of more than NT$150 million.