New Taipei City — A university student eager to watch the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) All-Star Game was defrauded of nearly NT$100,000 after attempting to buy tickets from an online seller through the Threads platform.
The victim, surnamed Wang, a senior student at a national university in New Taipei City, said he and his friends were planning to attend the All-Star Game in early July. When tickets quickly sold out, Wang turned to social media in hopes of securing resale tickets. On July 7, he found a seller offering two tickets for NT$2,000—roughly the original price—and reached out immediately.
The seller soon contacted Wang via Instagram, requesting a small deposit and promising to meet in person the same day. Though suspicious, Wang proceeded and transferred NT$300 through a convenience store’s sales platform to a card number provided by the seller.
The transaction appeared to fail, prompting the seller to direct Wang to a customer service line for verification. Soon, someone claiming to be from Chunghwa Post contacted him and instructed him to log into online banking and input the six-digit code 049996 as a transaction amount to “verify his identity.”
Wang followed instructions twice—unaware the numbers were being used to make real remittances. After noticing his bank balance had dropped by nearly NT$100,000, he realized he had fallen victim to a scam.
Wang immediately hung up and called the anti-fraud hotline 165. During his call, the scammer attempted to reach him over 20 times, seemingly to disrupt his efforts to report the fraud. Police confirmed it was a classic phishing scam using fake ticket sales as bait.
“This scam ruined my plans to watch the game with my friends,” Wang said. “But I’m mentally prepared that I won’t get the money back.” He added that he hopes his experience will serve as a warning to others: “Be extra careful when someone asks you to verify accounts or make transactions through online banking.”
Authorities are continuing to investigate the case and are urging the public to avoid conducting financial transactions with unknown parties online and to always verify with official sources.
