A mainlander was arrested for assisting a gang to collect fraudulently obtained money through a “guess who I am” phone scam in Macau, in which the suspect pretending to be a “lawyer” attempted to collect a total of 220,000 patacas from a local female senior citizen on Sunday in Areia Preta district, a Public Security Police (PSP) spokesperson said yesterday.
According to the spokesperson, PSP officers identified the “lawyer” as a mainlander surnamed Huang in his twenties, who told the police that he is jobless.
According to yesterday’s regular press conference about the case, the victim fell for the “guess who I am” scam on Sunday and was about to lose a total of 220,000 patacas after she had received a call on her landline from a purported “son”, claiming that he had been detained by police officers in Taipa for committing certain offences and that in order get him released from custody, she was to hand over the money in cash to a “lawyer” who would bail her “son” out.
The woman then tried to contact her son several times but to no avail, and when she was about to withdraw money from the bank the next day, she eventually contacted her son and reported the case to the police after she discovered the call was a scam.
After receiving the report, PSP officers put Huang under surveillance and arrested him in Areia Preta district on Monday once he showed up to pick up the cash.
Under questioning, the suspect admitted that he had received a 1,000 yuan (1,137 patacas) daily payment from “someone” to collect the cash in Macau for him, adding that there are two other accomplices, who had collected fraud money near the Barrier Gate checkpoint and Estrada do Repouso, one of whom was still at large yesterday, while the other one has been arrested by the Judiciary Police (PJ).
Huang was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge, the spokesperson said, adding that the elderly woman had not suffered any financial loss in the scam.
This handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows the mainland fraud suspect being escorted by a PSP officer to a police station in the northern district on Monday.
