He added that CIB has already assisted in the return of around 600 individuals – including Hsieh – through coordination with various agencies.
The Taiwanese government has been ramping up rescue efforts, working with police liaisons and local authorities.
The CIB said Hsieh was able to leave the compound mainly with the help of its liaison officers, who negotiated with authorities in Thailand.
But in Cambodia, another location where scam operations are rife and where diplomatic relations are lacking, Lee said officers work with non-governmental organisations and Taiwanese business associations based there to facilitate rescues.
NOT ALL ARE VICTIMS
After rescue, authorities are mandated by law to carry out further investigations because not everyone in a scam compound is a victim.
“By examining their interactions with others and travel records, supplementing that with other information we receive, we distinguish between innocent victims and those who knowingly participated in scams,” said Lee.
On Wednesday (May 7), 55 Taiwanese scam compound workers were repatriated from Thailand. Among them, 25 were wanted by authorities in connection to cases involving theft, fraud, drugs and money laundering, according to the CIB.
Crime syndicates used to run phone scams out of Taiwan. Even today, the island remains a crucial node in such global crime networks, partly because there are still scam syndicates operating out of Taiwan or by Taiwanese overseas.
While most operations have gone offshore to countries like Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines, Taiwan’s authorities continue to use the experience it has gained over the years to assist in the global fight against cyber fraud.
Chang Jung-Hsin, chief of Taiwan’s top law enforcement agency, said there has been some measurable success.
In 2024, about 600 cases of fraud were reported daily with a loss of between NT$400 million and NT$600 million.
“After we moved to combat fraud and with cooperation between the government agencies and civilian organisations… the number of fraud cases fell,” said Chang, the director general of Taiwan’s National Police Agency.
This January, daily cases dropped to around 400 cases with the total loss that month down to NT9.5 billion – an average of NT300 million a day.
