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High reported severity Criminal Charges

Taiwan police say a ring used AI deepfake face videos of at least 55 people in China to pass a digital-yuan app's identity check and take about NT$200 million

Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau said on 2 February 2026 that a fraud-services ring working with offshore scam call centres obtained personal data and photos of people in mainland China and used deepfake technology, which public broadcaster PTS reports as AI, to make face-verification videos of the victims. The videos passed the identity check of China's digital-yuan (e-CNY) app, letting the ring bind the victims' bank accounts and move their savings. Police count at least 55 victims and losses of about NT$200 million. Officers raided the ring's flat in Beitun, Taichung, in November 2024, and its financier was arrested in Thailand and returned to Taiwan; Taichung prosecutors indicted four people for fraud, computer misuse and organised crime. The dates of the individual thefts are not reported.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
2 February 2026
Event location
Taiwan, China
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Finance · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 55 people

AI system as recorded: Deepfake (AI) technology used to generate face-verification videos of the victims from obtained photos, as described by Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (tool not named)

What Happened

The scheme. According to Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), as reported by PTS and the Liberty Times on 2 February 2026, a 'system supplier' ring set up in Taiwan sold WeChat, QQ and Apple ID accounts to offshore scam call centres, including one in Cambodia, and worked with them on account takeovers. After the call centres obtained personal data from people in mainland China, the ring used deepfake technology to make face-verification videos of the victims; PTS describes it as AI deepfake imagery of the victims' faces made from photos obtained through an illegal photo supplier. A CIB unit head told PTS the videos passed the identity-verification step of the digital-yuan (e-CNY) app, which let the ring bind the victims' bank accounts and transfer their deposits. The ring used Starlink satellite internet service.

Victims. The CIB counts at least 55 victims, all described as people in mainland China, with losses equivalent to about NT$200 million. No individual victim is described and the dates of the thefts are not reported.

Investigation. The CIB's central anti-crime centre received intelligence in 2024, raided a flat in Beitun, Taichung, in November 2024, arrested three people and seized 320 phones and computers. The alleged financier was found in Thailand, arrested in May 2025 with a Starlink unit and returned to Taiwan in June 2025. Taichung prosecutors indicted four people for fraud, obstruction of computer use and organised crime; the reports give no verdict.

Reported harm

According to Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, deepfake face videos of at least 55 people in mainland China passed the digital-yuan app's identity check, and their bank deposits, about NT$200 million in total, were transferred out.

Outcome

Pending

Police raided the Taichung flat in November 2024 and arrested three people; the alleged financier was arrested in Thailand in May 2025 and returned to Taiwan in June 2025. Taichung District Prosecutors Office indicted four people for fraud, obstruction of computer use and organised crime (PTS and Liberty Times, 2 February 2026). Google News searches on 30 October 2026 found no report of a verdict.

What remains unknown

  • Dates of the individual account takeovers (only the November 2024 raid and the 2024 intelligence are dated)
  • Which tool generated the face-verification videos and how the photos were obtained beyond 'an illegal photo supplier'
  • How the NT$200 million was split among the victims and whether any was recovered
  • The outcome of the prosecution; no verdict was found by 30 October 2026

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The CIB, which investigated the ring, says it used deepfake technology to make face-verification videos of the victims from their photos, and a CIB unit head told PTS that these videos passed the digital-yuan app's identity-verification step; PTS describes the technique as AI deepfake (c1). The generated videos impersonated each victim toward the app (depicted_or_impersonated), and passing the check is what let the ring bind the victims' bank accounts and move their deposits (c1, c2). The tool is not named and the police have not published how the videos were made beyond this description.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported According to the CIB, after offshore scam call centres obtained personal data of people in mainland China, the ring used deepfake technology, described by PTS as AI, to make face-verification videos of the victims that passed the digital-yuan app's identity check, then bound the victims' bank accounts and transferred their deposits.

Causal attribution. One origin: the CIB's account, relayed by PTS (with a unit head's quotation) and the Liberty Times.

  • news.pts.org.tw(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    由中國非法的調照商取得被害人照片後，搭配AI深偽技術，再使用星鏈低軌衛星的網路服務，破解對岸的數字人民幣的刷臉驗證，綁定被害人帳號，將其帳戶內的存款盜轉。; 利用深偽技術製作被害人臉部驗證影片，順利通過數字人民幣APP身分驗證程序。
  • news.ltn.com.tw(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    利用深偽技術（Deepfake）製作被害人臉部驗證影片，順利通過「數字人民幣」APP身分驗證程序，以綁定被害人金融帳戶，藉此盜取移轉被害人存款。
Reported The CIB counts at least 55 victims in mainland China and losses of about NT$200 million.

Causal attribution. The CIB's count; one origin. PTS records it as a count so far ('目前至少').

Reported Police raided the ring's flat in Beitun, Taichung, in November 2024, and the alleged financier was arrested in Thailand and returned to Taiwan; Taichung prosecutors indicted four people for fraud, obstruction of computer use and organised crime.

Causal attribution. The CIB's account of its investigation and the prosecutors' indictment as relayed by two outlets; one origin. The indictment text was not read.

  • news.pts.org.tw(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    員警進到台中北屯這間公寓大樓，將嫌犯壓制。; 檢方近日偵查終結，依詐欺、妨害電腦使用、組織犯罪防制條例等罪嫌，起訴
  • news.ltn.com.tw(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    於2024年11月間直搗機房; 經透過刑事局國際刑警科協請泰國移民總局協助; 並查扣星鏈設備一組，去年6月將他遣返回台。; 台中地檢署近日偵結，依詐欺、妨害電腦使用及組織犯罪

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-30; translated by the research agent (an AI). PTS News report of 2 February 2026 (page timestamp 13:31), HTTP 200, relaying the CIB's account and quoting a CIB unit head. Applies to s1.

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-30; translated by the research agent (an AI). Liberty Times report of 2 February 2026 (page timestamp 10:00), HTTP 200, relaying the same CIB account; one institutional origin with s1. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Taiwan, China. Affected-person countries: China. Court countries: Taiwan.

Event: the ring operated from a flat in Beitun, Taichung (s1, s2), and, according to the CIB, the scheme began by cheating people in the China region of their personal data ('騙取中國地區民眾個資', s1, quoting a CIB squad leader; '騙中國地區民眾個資', s2), so part of the deception reached people in China; the digital-yuan app's country of origin is not used as evidence of location. Affected people: described as people in the China region ('中國地區民眾', s2). Court: indictment by the Taichung District Prosecutors Office (s2). Cambodia (call centre) and Thailand (arrest) are recorded in the narrative only.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-30: Published as a reported case: Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, which investigated the ring, says it made deepfake face-verification videos of at least 55 people in mainland China that passed the digital-yuan app's identity check and took about NT$200 million from their accounts; prosecutors indicted four people. All claims rest on the CIB's account relayed by PTS and the Liberty Times.

People described

At least 55 people in mainland China whose personal data and photos were obtained by scam call centres and whose bank deposits were taken after deepfake face videos passed the digital-yuan app's identity check

People reported harmed in this case

At least 55 people

0 AI participants · 55 other people harmed

The CIB says its count so far is at least 55 victims ('目前至少有55名中國籍被害人', PTS); the Liberty Times gives 55. Recorded as a documented minimum.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#deepfake-face-video#identity-verification-bypass#account-takeover#digital-yuan#taiwan#indictment

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Taiwan police say a ring used AI deepfake face videos of at least 55 people in China to pass a digital-yuan app's identity check and take about NT$200 million. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-taiwan-police-say-ring-used-ai-deepfake-face-videos-of-55-people-in-china-to-pass-digital-yuan-app-checks-and-take-their-savings

BibTeX

@misc{2024_taiwan_police_say_ring_used_ai_deepfake_face_videos_of_55_people_in_china_to_pass_digital_yuan_app_checks_and_take_their_savings,
  title = {Taiwan police say a ring used AI deepfake face videos of at least 55 people in China to pass a digital-yuan app's identity check and take about NT\$200 million},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-taiwan-police-say-ring-used-ai-deepfake-face-videos-of-55-people-in-china-to-pass-digital-yuan-app-checks-and-take-their-savings}
}

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