TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested three Taiwanese nationals over the unlawful withdrawal of cash in Japan via forged bank cards from China, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 12).
Police have accused Tsai Ming-hui, 32, and two other men of using the forged cards from Chinese financial institution UnionPay to withdraw 300,000 yen at a bank ATM in Shinjuku Ward on March 21.
Tsai, who has been charged with theft and forgery of an electromagnetic document, denies the charges.
Police seized seized 26 counterfeit UnionPay cards from the suspects, who arrived in Japan on March 7, according to NHK (Apr. 11). Since last month, the trio withdrew a total of about 11 million yen using similar means on 300 occasions, police said.
Police believe that the suspects are a part of a ring that carries out unlawful withdrawals in Japan. Since last April, roughly 3.2 billion yen has been unlawfully withdrawn with fake UnionPay cards from branches of three Japanese banks in 10 prefectures.
