Fraud 101 for Foreigners

Discussion Open Forum
1

Hey all,

Just found out a great loophole in Taiwan, for those of you who are running a bit low on cash and don’t feel like taking the trouble to work.

Fraud.

Yep, it’s time to set up the Official Forumosa Pyramid Scheme.

Do whatever you like, as long as it’s only in violation of the civil code. Let your creditors sue you as many times as they like. They’ll get cute little papers with judgements against you, but just thumb your nose at them and dare them to try to collect. No sweat for you, it’s “just” a civil judgement. Close out those bank accounts (always defraud for cash, don’t forget, or at least have the money transferred off-shore), and Bob’s yer uncle. Presto! A tidy income without the hassle of bosses, work permits, sniveling children and harridan parents.

After obtaining a civil judgement against a grad student at Fujen from El Salvador (whose name is NOT Miguel, so those who know the Salvadorans here can draw their own – probably accurate – conclusions) for money he owes me, I’ve been informed that the Foreign Affairs Police feels that this is not their problem. They do not feel the need to contact the individual in question, to do anything at all to facilitate his actually paying his debt, etc. etc, or indeed of even ensuring that he stays in Taiwan while the debt remains unpaid. The question of just how this guy has been surviving in Taiwan for the past 4 months with no visible means of support (he’s lost his scholarship due to poor grades) doesn’t seem to bother them in the least. English teaching? Peddling drugs? Defrauding others? No ma’am, our job is just to collect the fees for the ARCs and stamp our little chops in the boxes on the form.

In short, the value of a civil judgment against someone is precisely zero. As long as that person has managed to get his or her money out of Taiwan, they are free to thumb their noses at the law. Yet a single word by a pissed-off Taiwanese was sufficient to get the police to my front door two years ago (for those who recall the Glossika saga) and start a whole chain reaction of exciting fun. Glossika had no judgement against me (and their lawyer quit when they asked him to pursue one). I have a judgement against this guy, but no one feels it’s their problem to enforce it. I’m not generally one to sic the Mafia on people, but what can I do, short of getting someone to “talk” to the guy?

blah blah blah “the international community doesn’t accept us” :cry: blah blah “we’re an advanced nation” :noway: blah blah “rule of law” blah blah blah “reciprocity” blah blah blah blah :raspberry:

Get a clue.
Sign the New York Convention for reciprocal enforcement of arbitration decisions – great help toward giving businessmen confidence that they just might have a modicum of legal protection if they did business in Taiwan.
Get a system of law that actually MEANS something.
Figure out that “Foreign Affairs” doesn’t mean a roll in the hay with a Frenchman during “xiuxi”. :smiling_imp:

2

we should start our own forumosa mafia to sort out these, and many other, kinds of problems :fume:

i’m serious

3

Could do, but you’d have to pay me protection money – I’ve already sewed this city up. So everyone, just you transfer NT$1000 apiece into my Post Office account or you’ll regret it. :bluemad:

OK now, get going, off to the Post Office, and while you’re there don’t forget to pick up that cute paper with the squares on it to write the required 2 “official evidence letters” preparatory to suing me in small claims court for defrauding you out of your NT$1000 (oops, that will cost you another NT$12, be sure to include it in the amount you ask for). :fume:

4

Terry,

Your description of the Foreign Affairs Police attitude got me chuckling (though I’m sure it’s not a humourous situation you find yourself in). It made me see that things haven’t changed a bit in the R.O.C. That completely myopic bureaucratic attitude… makes me recall the “good old days”. Remember the elaborate dance we had to do, when we were virtually all illegal workers, to satisfy the Tax Office and the FAP? First you’d register at a bogus language school to satisfy the police that you had an acceptable reason for being in the country, then you’d launder your earnings at that gold shop on Lin Sen North Road, in order to show the Tax Office that you had been exchanging your dollars to support yourself. In the end, the Tax Office just said, fuck you, we know you are working, and we estimate that you need at least NT28,000 to survive in Taiwan, so we summarily tax you for this amount.

The point being that the Tax Office didn’t give a toss where you stood with the Police as long as you ponyed up your tax, and the police didn’t seem to want to pay attention to the fact that your tax clearance from the Tax Office was a tacit acknowledgement that you were working illegally.

The easiest way to survive and thrive as a civil servant in Taiwan, and probably everywhere in the world, seems to be to bury your head in the sand, and do not an iota more than what can be defined as the absolute most conservative interpretation of the scope of your duties.

Good luck with your money problem. I feel your frustration. I once leant a few hundred dollars to a hostelmate, who soon after skipped the country. He was the son of a late, senior United States Senator from Arkansas - that’s what really pissed me off about being stiffed by him.

By the way, are you still “moonlighting” for Ken H. & James C, up at school #6?

5

Huh??

I do miss laundering money through jewelry shops, though. So much more straightforward than the current morass… :laughing:

6

Ironlady, how did this guy dupe you into giving him money?
What kind of investment was it (or was it simply a loan) and how much did you lose?

7

Simply a loan. I’ve loaned similar sums to similar people in the past and have ALWAYS been repaid promptly, if in installments. For MOST people I’ve dealt with in this sort of situation, repayment is a matter of honor and they are happy to be able to comply. I don’t charge interest to anyone. I am asking for nothing more than a repayment of some sort from this guy. Installments are fine, even tiny ones, but there has to be the responsibility there, or AT LEAST a cessation of this lying about this and that. Getting really tired of it. Total was about NT $110,000. With the paper I have on him, it was no problem getting a civil judgement against him; problem is (as detailed above) civil judgements are worth LESS than the paper they’re written on. At least someone could wipe his bum with the paper… :fume:

8

Ironlady,

I suggest you physically attack him breaking a few bones - legs, arms, back etc… The foreign affairs police have the exact same attitude when it comes to violence between foreigners as they do in cases of fraud. You can basically fuk him over completely just don’t leave him in a body bag - cause then the foreign affairs police would then have paperwork to do - and they will be miffed.

9

A number of years ago in Napoli pub/restaurant in Taichung a guy broke another foreigner’s collarbone with a pool cue for not paying back money he owed. The guy on the wrong end of the stick sued and the other guy had to pay him about 100K.

According to those who were there, the guy with the pool cue demanded an apology for not repaying the loan. The other guy replied, “OK, you are forgiven.” THWACK!

10

Not just foreigners - a “friend” stiffed my wife for NT4,000,000 - she made the loan to a friend who turned out not to be a friend when the repayment was long overdue - legal and more traditional attempts to obtain repayment have been fruitless.

11

I was always taught

“When lending money to Friend and Family. Best consider it gone.”