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Why ATM scammers should not pick Taiwan

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Why ATM scammers should not pick Taiwan

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan fell victim to its first-ever large-scale automatic teller machine theft over the July 10 weekend, when a group of mostly Eastern European nationals managed to take NT$83 million from the First Commercial Bank.
Police succeeded in solving the crime within a week, even though there was a strange twist at the end when it was found a local resident had taken some of the money home with him before alerting the authorities.
A total of three suspects were detained, Andrejs Peregudovs from Latvia, Mihail Colibaba from Romania and Nikolay Penkov from Moldova. All other 14 suspects left Taiwan before police could get hold of them.
The suspects who escaped the country have been identified as Victor Kharechko from Australia, Xander Tann from Estonia, Romanians Alexandru Arsenii, Vitalie Ursu, Igor Velicoglo, Ion Secrieru and Oleg Malic, Russians Sergey Berezovskiy, Evgenii Babii, Alexander Lvovskiy, Kano Adiian, Gaik Manukian, Vladimir Berkman and Oxana Sarkisova.
The theft took place after the group allegedly infected the First Commercial Bank with the “Tyupkin” malware, which Interpol and Internet security firm Kaspersky Lab warned against in 2015.
According to the bank, the thefts took place at a wide range of branches from Taipei City and New Taipei City to Taichung. Investigators reportedly uncovered links between the bank’s London branch and its headquarters which pointed in the direction of the malware. A London branch manager and the bank’s software experts were subjected to questioning by prosecutors.
After suspect Peregudovs was apprehended after a restaurant visit in Yilan County, investigators soon came to the conclusion that while most suspects had flown, the money from the theft was still hidden inside the country.
A total of NT$60 million was recovered from a hotel where two suspects were also arrested, and NT$12 million turned up inside a bag found near a park in Taipei’s Neihu District. A further NT$4.54 million was found by a Neihu resident, who later turned it in to the police. That discovery still leaves about NT$6 million unaccounted for.
Online, the whole operation became the subject of jokes, including a list of reasons why hackers or scammers should not pick Taiwan to conduct an operation.
1. You should not choose a country full of surveillance cameras (like Taiwan).
2. You should not choose a country which you can only leave by plane (like Taiwan).
3. You should not choose a country with 24-hour television stations (like Taiwan).
4. You should not choose a country where police are experiences in combating fraud rings (like Taiwan).
5. You should not choose a country where you bump into police officers everywhere (like Taiwan).
6. You should not choose a country which is a prominent exporter of fraud rings (like Taiwan).
7. You should not choose a country where people frequently work overtime and police stay alert even when on holiday (like Taiwan).
Presidential spokesman Alex Huang said on July 21 that in addition to praising the police force’s efforts, President Tsai Ing-wen also instructed a strengthening of online security measures.
According to police data, the same group has been active in Russia, Eastern Europe and Japan since 2013, causing losses of up to NT$30 billion, but this time, it met its match in Taiwan.