Police in Tainan said on Sept. 15 that a digital marketing technology company in the city helped scam rings produce and place fake investment and fake romance advertisements, with 36 victims suffering losses of more than NT$55.54 million. The company, founded in 2023, allegedly collected more than NT$28 million in ad placement and related service fees from the fraud groups. Thirteen people were transferred to the Tainan District Prosecutors Office, and a 36-year-old lead suspect surnamed Lee, along with three ad buyers, was detained by court order.
Police say the firm accepted USDT before cashing out in Taiwan
According to ETtoday, citing police, the lead suspect established the Taiwan company in 2023 and separately set up an offshore shell advertising technology company to conceal the flow of funds through the two entities. Designers and ad buyers at the firm allegedly created investment ads impersonating well-known investment advisers and placed them on Facebook. Police said the company took payments in Tether, or USDT, and then converted the crypto into cash in Taiwan in an effort to avoid detection.
Investigators said the suspect also instructed team members to create their own accounts and purchased large numbers of LINE accounts from overseas companies. Those accounts were used as fake participants in investment chat groups run under the names of bogus investment advisers, where they posted profit screenshots and messages thanking the so-called teachers for stock tips, creating the impression that many people in the groups were making money.
Victims were split across fake investment and fake romance ads
Police divided the 36 victims into two groups. In the first, the company directly placed fake ads impersonating investment personalities, leading to 22 victims and losses of more than NT$52.54 million. The largest individual loss exceeded NT$11.39 million. In the second, the company rented out advertising accounts to other operators who placed fake romance ads, causing another 14 victims to lose a combined total of more than NT$3 million.
The report said that adding the victims’ losses of more than NT$55.54 million to the marketing company’s service fees of more than NT$28 million puts the total illegal gains at more than NT$83.54 million. Some media outlets described the figure as nearly NT$83 million.
Searches led to the seizure of cash, devices and about 89,599 USDT
The task force carried out searches in three waves at the company and the suspects’ residences. Officers seized 34 mobile phones, 11 laptops, three desktop computers and one tablet. They also seized NT$5,283,800 in cash and about 89,599 USDT.
Police valued the USDT holdings at about NT$2,735,062, or roughly NT$30.5 per token. Using MAX Exchange’s quoted price of about NT$31.9 on the evening of Sept. 15, the same amount would be worth about NT$2.86 million. The seized cash and virtual assets together exceeded NT$8 million, less than 30% of the company’s service-fee income.
Ministry of Digital Affairs first flagged unusual flows, Meta supplied records
The report said the June investigation began after Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs detected unusual money flows tied to the company’s ad spending on social platforms and notified the Tainan District Prosecutors Office and the Criminal Investigation Bureau. The task force then obtained ad placement and registration data from Meta.
Meta also referred to a similar case when it released anti-fraud results in Taiwan on Aug. 27. The company said it had found a Tainan advertising firm placing large volumes of ads impersonating investment experts and directing users to communication groups outside Meta’s platforms. Meta said it disabled the related accounts, preserved evidence through formal notices, and passed the information to the Taiwan government. The case was later cracked jointly by the Tainan District Prosecutors Office and the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Meta did not disclose the company’s name.
The same Meta material showed that from January to mid-July this year, the company proactively removed more than 3.1 million scam ads in Taiwan and disabled more than 40,000 advertising accounts.
How the scheme worked and how police calculated the figures
Police said the operation relied on ad designers and buyers to produce Facebook advertisements impersonating investment advisers, then used purchased LINE accounts as fake users inside investment groups to stage profit-making activity. Investigators said that setup was used to convince victims that the groups were genuine and profitable.
As for the amount involved, police added the more than NT$55.54 million lost by 36 victims to the more than NT$28 million in service fees the marketing company allegedly charged scam groups, bringing the total to more than NT$83.54 million.