Two men from Changhua who met in junior high have each been sentenced to a year in prison for helping a scam ring, undone by a payout worth less than a thousand Taiwan dollars.

• A Changhua court convicted both men of group fraud after they joined a scam operation in March 2024.
• One worked as the "cash runner" pulling money out of ATMs; the other collected it and passed it up the chain to break the money trail.
• The ring used a fake prize-win pitch to trick a woman into wiring money, including one small transfer of NT$800.
• She realised she had been scammed and called police, which exposed the whole operation.
• Both confessed, and with no proof they were ever paid, they got reduced terms of one year each.

Outlook: The verdict can still be appealed, and low-level runners remain the easiest link for police to catch in Taiwan's scam networks.