TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A university student was scammed NT$250,000 (S$11,000) while purchasing the same shirt seen on Hong Kong celebrity Edison Chen.

"The student, surnamed Lin, purchased a shirt online that he had seen on the celebrity. To pay for the shirt, he made a NT$299 transfer at an ATM machine. Later, culprits pretending to be customer service from the online shop called Lin and told him that the transaction needed to be reprocessed due to an error.

Unsuspecting, the victim followed their instructions and transferred another NT$20,000 on Tuesday, said Reifang Precinct of Taipei County police.

Taking Lin as an easy target, the criminals cited "data integration" as a reason and convinced Lin to make an additional transfer of NT$230,000 using his father's account.

Lin only came to realize the mistake when he saw the ATM receipts. He reported the case to the police in person yesterday with his father in tow.