I was a victim of a scam involving cryptocurrency, where the perpetrator was looking to buy crypto for TWD on Binance’s P2P platform, where I would receive TWD. I was a regular user, and transacted with this person. I received the TWD and thought nothing more of it; however, it transpired a month later, as my bank accounts were frozen, that the money was in fact been transferred from another person, who made a police report as a victim of an investment scam, i.e. other victim sends me money, I send the scammer crypto, and I get reported to the police as the scammer, making be an unwitting accessory to money laundering.
Unfortunately this happened something like 30 times, and there is a multitude of police reports being lodged against me; I have 2 cases that have made it to the local prosecutor’s office, one of which as issued a travel restriction against me (I’m a foreigner), which is really stressing me out because I don’t know if being an unwitting money mule in this country, in this fashion, would exempt me of any criminal liability. I’ve already hired a lawyer to handle my cases, and made a police report of my own, a month after my accounts started being frozen (which was at the end of last year).
So my question is whether anyone has heard of, or been involved in similar situations, and what kind of penalties, if any, I might likely be on the hook for (my lawyer, in capacity of legal advice, would of course say that all charges are possible but I’d prefer to know what happens in real, similar cases). Thanks!
There aren’t any formal charges yet as the case is still under investigation. The scammer probably used a stolen identity. I made a report to Binance with the hope of retrieving the identity they used to pass KYC on their platform, but without formal documentation from the police stating that the bank transaction was fraudulent, they’re unlikely to help.
Yeah likely they won’t. Hopefully the evidence available will show you were an unwitting victim. For me, it’s hard to understand what benefit you would get out of this so maybe there’s a good shot.
This happened to my friend too - but in her case she was told to withdraw the money in cash and hand it over to the scammer who was waiting around the corner!
At this point she thought something wasn’t quite right (I know, I know…) and went and reported it to the police herself (after the drop). They were able to look through CCTV, find the guy who picked up the money and he was arrested.
My friend was then told to not worry about it.
However, a few weeks later her bank accounts were frozen and then a court summons came.
Unfortunately she wasn’t eligible for legal aid due to her family having money, but at the same time, she didn’t want them to find out - so she just went ahead with no lawyer at all.
We both assumed that as she had reported herself when she realised and the police had caught the actual guy who took the money that everything would be ok, but the prosecutor wanted to push on with it.
I’m looking at the document now - the charge wording is 詐欺等案件
Could you clarify what you mean by “the prosecutor wanted to push on it”? Do you mean that after meeting the prosecutor, they expressed intent to prosecute, or do you just mean she received a court summons after the police reports were made and they caught the perp?
I see. FWIW, she might possibly just be called as a witness. Do you mind sharing how long it took for the initial report to bring about a court case, and how far in advance the notice was?
