The Judiciary Police (PJ) have cracked a case of computer fraud and money laundering involving point-of-sale (POS) terminals, arresting a local businessman. The case involved using overseas credit card details to conduct fraudulent transactions, with the man defrauding card-issuing banks of about 620,000 patacas through bogus transactions made via the POS terminals.
The case was announced by PJ spokeswoman Leong Sok Man during a special press conference yesterday.
The suspect is a 39-year-old male named Wong.
In April last year, the Judiciary Police received a suspected money laundering case referred by the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), which had originally been flagged by the government’s Financial Intelligence Office (GIF).
Leong said that the Financial Intelligence Office had received reports from two local banks stating that a number of local merchants had used POS terminals to process 55 abnormal transactions linked to overseas credit cards. The transactions involved 39 overseas credit cards and amounted to 205,658 patacas. Because most of these transactions were made outside business hours, the banks considered them suspicious and reported the matter to the Financial Intelligence Office.
Following an investigation, the PJ identified Wong as the suspect. Investigators found that Wong had used three companies registered under his name – a coffee shop, a food processing plant, and a catering company – to apply for POS terminals from four local banks, ostensibly for business payment collection.
Between November 2024 and January 2025, Wong used a large volume of foreign credit card data, obtained through illegal means, to conduct bogus transactions on the POS terminals outside business hours. During this period, a total of 311 transactions were attempted. While 213 of these failed, involving a total amount of 2.88 million patacas, 98 transactions were successful, totalling 623,253 patacas, according to Leong
The 623,253 patacas from the successful transactions were settled by the banks and transferred into the bank accounts of Wong’s businesses. Wong then withdrew some of the ill-gotten money in cash and transferred the rest into other bank accounts.
The Judiciary Police were still tracing the flow of the illicit funds at the time of yesterday’s press conference.
PJ officers searched Wong’s flat and his business premises on Wednesday and arrested him.
Wong has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further questioning and investigation.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the credit card fraud suspect to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Tony Wong
