Another group of Taiwanese nationals has been arrested overseas on fraud charges, this time in Turkey. Foreign ministry spokesperson Eleanor Wang confirmed Tuesday that 52 Taiwanese nationals had been arrested in the coastal city of Izmir. The group is accused of operating a telecom fraud targeting people in Taiwan and China and of installing equipment on ATMs to steal users’ bank card details.
Wang said Taiwan’s representative in Turkey, Yaser Chang, had already flown to Izmir to offer assistance.
Wang said, “After we were notified, [our representative] traveled directly to Izmir and told the Turkish police that if the suspects are indeed ROC citizens, our local representative office will negotiate with them. Once the legal proceedings are completed in Turkey, if the suspects are to be deported we will certainly want them to be deported back to Taiwan so we can carry out our follow-up work.”
A Turkish media report said that in total 81 Taiwanese and Chinese nationals had been arrested. Of this group, four are said to be underaged and 10 are female. Local police also said the group had managed to steal the bank card data of an estimated 3,000 people.