A mainland woman was arrested last week for cheating a gambler out of 50,000 yuan (61,730 patacas) after falsely claiming that she could help two of his friends arrange business visit endorsements so they could visit Macau, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a regular press conference on Wednesday.
The 45-year-old jobless suspect is surnamed Xu.
According to Lei, a mainland man reported to the police last Saturday that he had been cheated by a mainland woman out of 50,000 yuan who claimed that she could assist him in arranging business visit endorsements for two of his mainland friends in order for them to visit Macau.
The victim told the police that he met Xu in a local casino in January. He told Xu that his friends were unable to apply for tourist permits to visit Macau, and she claimed that she could assist them in arranging “endorsements for business visits” at a cost of 25,000 yuan per person.
The victim paid 50,000 yuan on behalf of his friends. After receiving the money, Xu told the victim that the endorsements took 40 days to be processed. After 40 days, on February 21, the victim had not received any news from Xu, and he was unable to contact her.
Lei said the victim met Xu in another local casino last Saturday and asked her about the endorsements. He then realised that Xu had been unable to arrange the endorsements for his friends, and Xu claimed that she would return the money to him later through a friend in the mainland. After the victim didn’t receive any money from Xu he called the police. The Judiciary Police arrived at the scene and arrested Xu who admitted to defrauding the victim out of the money so she could gamble.
PJ officers also discovered that Xu was an overstayer since she had entered Macau in November 21, 2019. Normally, mainland tourists can stay in Macau for just a week.
Xu had been staying in inns and spent time in local casinos during her stay here, Lei said. The police are continuing their investigation into the case.
Xu has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge, according to Lei.
