The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a couple from the mainland yesterday for their involvement in 46 recent telecom scams. PJ spokesman Lei Chi Wai from the I.T. and Telecommunications Coordination Division said during a special press conference in Praça das Portas do Cerco (關閘廣場) near the crime scene.
Lei identified the suspects as a 48-year-old woman surnamed Duan, who works as a cleaner, and her 43-year-old boyfriend surnamed Li, a salesman. Both are non-resident workers (NRWs). They lived together in the central district.
According to Lei, the police discovered a scam operation in a flat rented by Duan and Li in the northern district, believed to be related to 46 recent scam cases, and apprehended them in their flat in the central district yesterday. In the cases, a number of scammers pretended to be callers from Macau using GOIP*, who posed as “customer service representatives from Alipay or WeChat”. They told the victims that “Your fund protection plan is about to expire, and if you don’t cancel it, a fee will be automatically deducted”. The police seized eight GOIP devices which were used to deceive their local victims by making calls that appeared to originate from Macau, while overseas fraudsters were operating the devices remotely through the internet.
Under questioning, Duan and Li admitted to renting the scam-operations flat and having been paid HK$5,000 to host the GOIP setups, but they refused to provide further information. The duo were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing fraud charges.
According to the PJ Anti-Fraud Coordination Centre, 46 locals have fallen victim to the scams, resulting in a total loss of HK$2.6 million (2.68 million patacas). The victims comprise 20 males and 26 females, including 16 teenagers, 25 middle-aged individuals, and five elderly persons. The scam operated in two main steps: First, the scammers impersonated local callers from Macau, claiming to be Alipay or WeChat customer service representatives. They then told the victims that “their fund protection plan and insurance is about to expire”, tricking them by claiming that “a large fee will be charged” and asking them, “Do you want to cancel the relevant insurance?”. If the victim asked to cancel it, the call was redirected to a “customer service representative” who then used four tactics to deceive the victims:
1. The victims were asked to share their screens via a WhatsApp video call, allowing scammers to observe online banking activities and steal funds.
2. The scammers requested the victims’ credit card number, security code, and name, under the guise of verifying their accounts.
3. The victims were first tricked into transferring a small amount, which was then quickly refunded to build trust, after which they were asked for larger transfers.
4. The victims were instructed to buy virtual currency through online banking and transfer it to the scammers’ designated wallet.
The Anti-Fraud Coordination Centre reminded citizens of the following: Any request for payment due to “deposit protection service” expiration is fraudulent; do not comply with requests from phone or online customer services to transfer money or disclose personal, bank, or credit card information—always verify everything through official channels; avoid engaging in video calls or screen sharing with strangers to prevent fraudsters from accessing your information; if in doubt, use the police forces’ “anti-fraud programme” to check risk levels, report suspicious messages, or call the anti-fraud hotline on 8800 7777 or the reporting hotline on 993 for assistance.
*The Global System for Mobile Communications Over Internet Protocol (GOIP) is a technology that routes voice calls and SMSs over the internet, bridging traditional Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks with Internet Protocol (IP)-based systems. While it is commonly used for legitimate telecommunications, it has also been exploited for fraudulent activities. – DeepSeek
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers display the eight GOIP devices used in the 46 scams outside the crime scene near the northern district’s Barrier Gate checkpoint yesterday afternoon. – Photo: Ada Lei
