122 Taiwan fraud suspects deported from Cambodia

TAIPEI—More than 120 Taiwanese nationals arrested in Cambodia on suspicion of fraud were deported to Taiwan Saturday for further investigation, police on the island said.

The 122 suspects, detained Thursday in a rare co-ordinated police operation across several Asian countries, landed in Taiwan early Saturday and were taken to a police center for questioning, said the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

They were among nearly 600 people, including 410 Taiwanese and 181 Chinese, rounded up across the region for allegedly running Internet and telephone scams mainly targeting mainland Chinese, according to the bureau.

Details of the scams are sketchy and appeared to have varied from country to country, but police believe thousands of people were taken in.

Taiwanese fraud rings have recently relocated to Southeast Asia after the island’s police joined forces with Chinese authorities to bust their operations.

Taiwanese fraud rings have recently relocated to Southeast Asia after the island’s police joined forces with Chinese authorities to bust their operations.

In Indonesia, police said the suspects would rent houses with broadband access and make phone calls over the Internet “to many victims in China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam in which they posed as an official to extort money.”