The Judiciary Police (PJ) nabbed an Indonesian woman for fraud and money laundering on Thursday, PJ spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said during a special press conference on Saturday.
Cheong identified the suspect as a 40-year-old non-resident worker (NRW) surnamed Marni who told the police that she is a domestic helper.
According to Cheong, last Tuesday, two local residents filed a report with the Judiciary Police that they had received phone calls from fraudsters posing as Taobao customer service representatives.
Cheong said that the fraudsters claimed that the victims’ memberships were due to expire and demanded an annual fee payment of 720 yuan.
Under the pretext of assisting them to cancel the subscription via a mobile application, the scammers instructed the two victims to activate the screen-sharing function on their phones and follow their instructions.
The fraudsters, according to Cheong, then claimed that cancelling the plan required an initial transfer, assuring the victims that the funds would be refunded immediately.
This tricked the two individuals into transferring 990,000 patacas and 160,000 patacas, respectively. However, the fraudsters cut off all contact as soon as the transfers were completed, Cheong said.
During the investigation into the flow of funds, Cheong said that PJ officers discovered that 200,000 patacas of the stolen money had been transferred into the bank account of a local youth.
An investigation revealed that this young individual was actually a victim in a separate fraud case.
According to Cheong, after the young resident had been scammed out of 3.4 million patacas earlier this year, his bank account was taken over and used by the criminal syndicate for laundering money. The Judiciary Police intervened in time, preventing further transfers of the illicit funds, Cheong said.
Another account that received 950,000 patacas was registered in Marni’s name, Cheong said, adding that PJ officers arrested Marni and seized her smartphone in the central district. Under questioning, she admitted to having been “asked” by a compatriot to use her personal details to register two phone cards and three bank accounts for criminal use, for which she received 5,000 patacas.
Marni was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Saturday, facing charges of fraud and money laundering.
The hooded Indonesian money laundering and fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape on Saturday. – Photo: Armindo Neves
