A 27-year-old fire dancer from Taiwan, Xie Yuepeng, applied for overseas performance jobs on Facebook. Last Christmas, he took a flight to Thailand and was scammed to a fraud zone in Myanmar. Through the active cooperation between the Taiwan and Thailand police forces, Xie Yuepeng safely arrived in Bangkok in the early hours of today (14th) and took a flight back to Taiwan this morning.
The investigation started when Xie Yuepeng’s family reported the case to the New Xing Police Substation of the Kaohsiung City Government Police Department. The case was then transferred to the Yangmei Police Substation under the jurisdiction of the Taoyuan City Government Police Department based on the victim’s current residence. According to the investigation by Yangmei Police Substation, Xie Yuepeng, who lives in Yangmei District, Taoyuan, is originally from Kaohsiung. He saw a job invitation on the social media platform Facebook and went missing after flying to Thailand on December 25th last year.
The police found that Xie Yuepeng’s last online location was in Myanmar, demanding tens of thousands of dollars in ransom. They urgently reported to the Kaohsiung police.
With the efforts of the Taiwan representatives in Thailand, the Criminal Investigation Bureau and Immigration Division stationed in Thailand, the Taiwan International Anti-Scam Association, as well as collaboration with the Thai Tourist Police Bureau, Xie Yuepeng safely returned to Thailand. He departed from the Thai-Myanmar border, arrived in Bangkok in the early hours of today, and took the early morning flight back to Taiwan.
Recently, there have been frequent reports of Taiwanese or Chinese people being deceived into fraud zones in Myanmar for scam work. Chinese actor Wang Xing was tricked into a filming invitation and was kidnapped to the KK zone in Thailand upon arrival on the 3rd. The incident shocked Chinese society, leading to intervention by the Chinese and Thai governments. Wang Xing was rescued and returned to Thailand on the 7th before going back to China on the 11th.
This incident has caused panic among the Chinese people, resulting in a wave of cancellations for Thailand travel bookings. This is no small matter for Thailand, which heavily relies on tourism for its economy. Therefore, the Thai police are actively involved in related cases, hoping to rebuild tourist confidence.
(Translated from Central News Agency)