Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Investigated NT 62 Million Columbarium Scam, Four were Detained and Held Incommunicado.

The investigation was led by Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office, the Criminal Investigation Bureau and other police bureaus. The task force searched 10 places in Kaohsiung and Tainan, seizing several luxury cars, watches and jewels. Twelve suspects were arrested.

According to the investigation, the suspects falsely claimed that they were selling columbarium niches and swindling some customers out of their life savings. The suspects contacted victims who bought columbarium niches before and told the victims there were “buyers” who want to buy the columbarium niches. After knowing the victims were interested in the transaction, members of the scam ring would pretend to be the sales clerks and gave the victims false information such as there were buyers who urgently wanted to buy the columbarium niches. To gain trust, the scammers also pretended to be the buyers to convince the victims to buy more columbarium niches as investments, which could be sold later for a high profit. Since April 2017, the suspects had swindled more than NT$ 62 million out of their victims.  

The court granted the prosecutor’s request to detain four suspects but ordered six other suspects released on bail. The Prosecutors Office will keep investigating money trail of illegal gains and took this opportunity to warn the public that scams are rife in the columbarium and funeral service businesses.