A 30-year-old mainland woman reported to the police on Sunday that she had been cheated out of 3.1 million yuan (3.79 million patacas) in an online gambling scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai said at a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Choi, the victim, who lives in Zhuhai, told the police that she had been cheated out of 3.1 million yuan in an online scam. The victim said that she had met a male netizen about half a year ago, and they became online friends.
Afterwards, the man persuaded her to download a gambling online app called “Wynn Entertainment” on her smartphone and told her that he knew how to win and could teach her the method. The victim believed the man and downloaded the app but she did not deposit any money immediately.
According to Choi, the victim travelled to Macau last Wednesday but instead of gambling in local casinos she chose to gamble online through the purported “Wynn Entertainment” app and transferred a total of 3.1 million yuan in several tranches to different bank accounts in the mainland between last Wednesday and Sunday. The “customer service” of the app notified her on Sunday that her account had been frozen due to illegal operations and required her to transfer 820,000 yuan to unfreeze the account. The victim grew suspicious and asked to withdraw all the money but to no avail. At the same time, the victim was unable to contact her online friend and the purported “customer service”. She finally realised that she had been defrauded and reported the case to the police.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai poses during yesterday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters.
Photo: Camy Tam
