Two local women in their eighties and nineties respectively reported to the police separately last week that they had been cheated in similar scams, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said in a regular conference yesterday.
Chan identified the scam tactic as “guess who I am”, which usually involves swindlers pretending to be a victim’s relative or friend.
According to Chan, the female victim received a call last Tuesday from a man claiming to be her “grandson-in-law”. The scammer said he had been drunk after attending a party earlier and had raped a woman, and asked the victim to give him 90,000 patacas to pay his “bail”. The victim said that she did not have that much money, but agreed to give him 50,000 patacas.
Chan said that the victim received another call from the “grandson-in-law” the next day, claiming that a friend would collect the money from her home in Areia Preta district. The victim gave the money to a woman claiming to be a friend of her “grandson-in-law” later that day.
The scammer later demanded more money, finally leading the victim to go to her grandson-in-law’s flat, where she discovered that she had been defrauded, after which she reported the case to the police.
In the other case, the 90-year-old female victim received a call on Thursday from a scammer claiming that the victim was his “aunt-in-law”, asking her for money. The scammer said that he urgently needed 50,000 patacas. Believing him, the victim went to the bank with her domestic helper to withdraw the money and handed it over to a man claiming to be a friend of the “nephew-in-law” near Avenida de Horta e Costa. She realised that she had been scammed after talking to her relatives and reported the case to the police.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man looks on during Monday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: William Chan
