Taiwan is seeing a sharp rise in scam gangs sending money mules abroad, but police say leaving the country no longer keeps them safe.

• Fewer Taiwanese are willing to be cash collectors at home because people now know it is a crime, so gangs are recruiting more overseas mules.
• Foreign mules from Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Macau are lured to Taiwan with promises of high pay, short "jobs," or free travel, recruited through underground groups and Telegram.
• Gangs pick people who speak Chinese, offer about ten thousand a day, move them to a new hotel nightly, and send them in and out as a group to avoid getting caught.
• Taiwanese who go abroad to work as mules target fellow Taiwanese living in the US, Japan, and Canada, usually working in trusted groups of three.
• They go overseas believing local police are less aggressive than Taiwan's, hoping that leaving the country cuts the trail — but many are still arrested once back home.

Outlook: Cross-border scam recruitment is likely to keep growing, though police pressure means returning mules still face arrest.