What used to be a leisure space for young gamers is now being exploited by criminal syndicates. Taiwanese authorities have uncovered that popular online mobile games such as StarCity Online and Garena Arena of Valor have recently become hotbeds for recruiting drug couriers and scam runners.
According to the police, both fraud rings and drug trafficking networks are targeting youth deeply immersed in mobile gaming. These criminals infiltrate game chat rooms and approach potential recruits under the guise of offering part-time jobs or delivery work. In some cases, they even lure players with promises of in-game currency as rewards—enticing them into illegal activities without their full awareness.
Professor Hsu Hua-fu from the Department of Crime Prevention at National Chung Cheng University highlighted the disturbing rise in the phenomenon of young people becoming accomplices through the internet. He noted that online game chatrooms now serve as communication hubs for emerging forms of cybercrime, which require more sophisticated technological surveillance and legal oversight.
Ten years ago, scam syndicates typically scouted for recruits in internet cafés, targeting individuals for roles like money mules or call center agents in overseas scam operations. But with the transformation of internet cafés into more upscale venues, these groups have shifted their focus to mobile gaming platforms. In one case, criminal investigators busted a telecom fraud ring whose ringleader admitted that all the members had been recruited while playing Arena of Valor—with the game serving both as a recruitment tool and a leisure activity for the scammers.
Authorities also pointed out that online scam groups have been using fake job advertisements to recruit individuals to open bank accounts or act as money mules. The Criminal Investigation Bureau has actively worked to take down online scam ads, having already reported over 250,000 fraudulent ads to online platforms. In the second quarter of this year alone, they requested the removal of over 26,000 scam ads on Meta platforms and 418 on Google.
Police said that in games like Arena of Valor, criminal groups deliberately target players who are frequently online, unemployed, or underage. They initiate conversations under the pretense of team play or asking for help with game tasks—only to later coerce these players into criminal roles.
In one drug trafficking case, officers discovered that a teenage boy acting as a drug courier had met a drug dealer through Arena of Valor. The dealer offered him NT$2,000 (about USD 60) per delivery. The teen, unaware of the true nature of the “deliveries,” agreed—and was eventually arrested while carrying ketamine.
