Cyber crime suspects from Taiwan and the Chinese mainland wait to be deported at an immigration detention center in Jakarta, Indonesia on December 16, 2015. Photo: CFP

Taiwan police's surprising release due to a lack of evidence of 20 telecom fraud suspects who were deported from Malaysia on Friday pushed to new heights the recent cross-Straits debate about the island's legislation and law enforcement regarding such crimes.

The release follows public outcry in Taiwan over Kenya deporting 77 telecom fraud suspects, including 45 Taiwan residents to the mainland last week.

"By releasing the suspects, Taiwan authorities disregarded many victims' interests and harmed them a second time. It also harmed the two sides' cooperation in jointly cracking down on crimes," An Fengshan, a spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, said on Saturday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

A preliminary investigation found that an annual average of over 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in illicit money was taken by the fraudsters from the mainland to Taiwan in recent years while only 200,000 yuan has been recovered so far, An previously told a press conference.

Stealing system

In recent years, suspects from Taiwan have organized telecom fraud groups in Southeast Asia, Africa and Oceania and defrauded mainlanders via phone calls by pretending to be public security officials or procuratorial and judicial authorities according to China's Ministry of Public Security, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

Equipped with advanced computer software, telecom fraud groups have a clear division of labor, according to a Taiwanese suspect in the recent Kenyan deportation incident, CCTV reported Friday.

Some members of the criminal group first use computers to make random calls to phone numbers registered in the mainland. The scam begins once victims answer the phone, hear a prerecorded voice message informing them that there is something wrong with their medical insurance and telling them to contact a government official - really a fraudster in disguise.

Most of the victims were convinced by the fraudsters when one of the gang calls them pretending to be a policeman, using software that can change the incoming call number displayed on a victim's phone.

A Beijing resident surnamed Liu that was conned lost all her savings of 190,000 yuan and another 5 million yuan which she made by selling her family home, news site thepaper.cn reported.

Taiwanese criminal groups are involved in 20 percent of all the telecom fraud cases that hit the mainland but made about half of the businesses' profits. Most of the major cases involving a loss of over 10 million yuan were related to Taiwan fraud gangs, The Beijing News reported Saturday.

Weak punishment

The spread of fraudsters in Taiwan is due to the island's weak punishment for such crimes and this has affected its reputation, experts said.

"Taiwan's laws dealing with frauds are too weak" to deter such crimes, Zhou Hongjun, an expert on international law at the East China University of Politics and Law, told the Global Times.

"Many telecom fraud convicts are not harshly punished in Taiwan," considering its relatively lighter legal punishments for frauds', which may contribute to reoffending and the expansion of the fraud industry, Zhou explained.

Compared with other parts of the world, the penalties for telecom fraud in Taiwan are light, Luo Ying-shay, head of the justice authorities in Taiwan, told media after the Kenyan deportation incident, citing a fraud case in the Philippines in which 14 Taiwan people were deported to the Chinese mainland in 2011, Taipei-based Broadcasting Corporation of China reported.

In this case, a total of 100 million yuan was swindled from mainlanders. However, after the fraudsters were sent back to Taiwan for a trial in July 2011, the 12 who were eventually convicted were only given between 16 to 44 months in prison, which could be commuted to fines, Taipei-based Radio Taiwan International reported.

In Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 29 members of a telecom criminal group were all sentenced to life in prison for stealing over 4 million yuan, the Procuratorate Daily reported.

The police's release of fraud suspects later contributed to Taiwan's reputation as an "exporter of fraudsters" and "greatly damaged the image of Taiwan,"said Chiu Yi, a former Kuomintang legislator.
Newspaper headline: Fraud exporter