A growing number of online fraud cases in Taiwan involve scammers posing as women on messaging apps such as LINE or Instagram, offering part-time erotic massage services. These fake accounts promote various massage “packages” ranging from regular massages to more explicit services.

Victims are lured in through casual conversation and then asked to pay for services using App Store gift cards. After purchasing the cards, victims are instructed to send the card numbers and PIN codes to the scammer. However, the scammer continually demands more payments while avoiding any in-person meetings, eventually leading the victim to realize they have been defrauded. By then, the gift card balance has already been redeemed by the fraud group, making recovery impossible.

Unlike gaming points cards, which typically require value to be added to a gaming platform and then resold to convert to cash, App Store gift cards offer greater convenience for scammers. Once they obtain the card details, they can instantly redeem the value on a mobile device and request a refund, making it a faster and more efficient way to cash out stolen funds. As a result, App Store cards have increasingly replaced gaming points cards as the preferred payment method in fake escort and massage scams.

According to data from Taiwan’s 165 Anti-Fraud Dashboard, in the first half of 2025, there were 5,620 reported scam cases involving victims who were tricked through messaging apps into paying for massage services. In the most severe case, the financial loss exceeded NT$2 million.