Having morning coffee at the local café, I was reading about a fresh case just cracked in Tainan. Police there announced on September 15 that they’d busted a digital marketing agency moonlighting for a scam syndicate. The woman running the show, surnamed Lee, set up her tech firm back in 2023. Behind the scenes, she opened shell companies overseas and hired a bunch of young recruits to churn out fake celebrity investment ads, pumping them out on Facebook by the thousands.
These guys knew all the tricks. They bought up burner SIMs, fake profiles, and LINE accounts to plant shills inside bogus investment chat groups, creating the illusion that big names were endorsing the schemes. In the end, 36 people fell for it, losing a staggering NT$55.44 million, with one single victim dropping NT$11.39 million. Just from agency fees and commissions, Lee and her crew pocketed over NT$28 million. After running three waves of raids, police seized more than NT$5.28 million in cash along with nearly 90,000 USDT. Lee, her younger brother, and two other core members have been locked up.
Sitting here looking out at the street at night, all those rented shophouses are burning the midnight oil with young people glued to their screens. You never really know whether the glowing monitor across the room is running a legitimate business or pushing traffic for scammers. Getting rich off people's hard-earned savings always ends the same way—with the police kicking your door in.
