A local jobless woman, in her sixties, reported to the Judiciary Police on Tuesday that she had been defrauded out of more than 4.5 million patacas in an online investment scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Ho, the victim met a netizen on a social media app called “SOUL” in September last year who later asked her to download an app on her smartphone to invest in virtual currencies. She then opened an account and made a string of remittances totalling the equivalent of more than 4.5 million patacas into a bank account in Hong Kong from September last year until mid-January. Ho said during the investment period, the victim had been reminded by staff at a local bank to be careful in case she was defrauded but the victim ignored the advice. In the middle of this month, the victim was unable to log in to her account anymore, and she finally realised that she had been cheated and reported the case to the police.
Duty Supervisor of PJ I.T. Crimes Section Chong Kam Leong also said at the press conference yesterday that in 2019 the Judiciary Police received 40 cases of so-called “killing pigs” fraud (殺豬盤 in Chinese), involving a total loss of more than 22 million patacas; and last year they received 94 cases involving a total loss of 28 million patacas. Chong pointed out that the scammers would add victims as “online friends” or after they became “online lovers” and subsequently invited the victims to download an app to buy virtual currencies. Chong underlined that the app was operated by the scammers to show that the investments had made “profit”, attracting the victims to invest more money into the scam in order for the scammers to defraud more money.
Watch out for WhatsApp scams
Meanwhile, six local female victims aged between 36 and 60 reported separately to the police on Monday that their WhatsApp accounts had been hacked. They told the police that they had received a six-digit verification code from “one of their friends” on that day in which they were requested to send the code back to their “friends”. Afterwards, the victims discovered that they were unable to login into their WhatsApp accounts. Ho said none of them suffered any losses despite the hacking of their WhatsApp accounts.
Chong said that the Judiciary Police had received eight cases of WhatsApp frauds in 2018 involving a loss of 27,230 patacas and 31 cases last year reported no loss, and as of Monday, they had already received 26 cases this month, involving a total loss of more than 54,000 patacas.
Public should be aware
Chong said that due to the recent increase in fraud cases commonly known as “killing pigs” and WhatsApp accounts being hacked, he urged the public to be aware of any investment scams or hacking of their accounts. He reminded residents to be cautious and do not believe online investments with guarantees of “high profits”. Investors should approach licensed financial institutions, to avoid being scammed. Chong also underlined that the Judiciary Police had collaborated with local banks to provide bank staff training on “Measures to advise customers on abnormal electronic remittances” since July 2019. He urges citizens to be calm and think clearly before proceeding with any remittances and be patient to accept advice provided by the bank staff. Anyone suspecting they are a victim of a scam should call the PJ online dating prevention hotline 6233 5136 or fraud prevention hotline 8800 7777.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam (left) and Duty Supervisor of I.T. Crimes Section Chong Kam Leong pose during yesterday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters.
Photo: Camy Tam
