A Taichung man nearly lost his bank account to a fake online girlfriend, but a store clerk spotted the setup and called police in time — a rare win against a common scam.

• A 40-year-old man met a woman on Facebook who said she ran a cosmetic surgery clinic in Vietnam, and they were "in love" within five days.
• She claimed she was moving to Taiwan and wanted to wire him $50,000 for living expenses, but said he had to mail her his bank card first.
• A convenience store clerk saw him trying to ship the card, thought it looked wrong, and called police.
• Police called it a textbook fake-romance scam and explained how real cross-border transfers work; mailed cards usually end up as money-laundering accounts.

Outlook: Romance scams targeting people through social media remain one of Taiwan's most common fraud methods, and convenience stores are becoming a front line for catching them.