A jobless local woman in her forties told the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Monday that she had been cheated out of 1.2 million yuan (1.47 million patacas) in an online investment scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lai Chio Hong said during a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Lai, the victim told the police that she met a male netizen last mid-December through a smartphone app and later they became close online friends and communicated via their chat accounts in late February.
The netizen told the victim that he was an investor working in the mainland. On March 1, he introduced an online app about an infrastructure investment purportedly called “ZFX” to the victim who downloaded the app, opened an account, and deposited 3,000 yuan. The investment then made a profit of 345 yuan after two days and the victim was able to withdraw 3,345 yuan from the account.
Lai said the man then suggested the victim “upgrade” the account to a “one-star member” which would enable her to earn more money from her investment. The victim then deposited a total of 1.2 million yuan in 20 tranches between March 6 and April 9. However, when the victim later wanted to withdraw part of the invested amount from the account, the “customer service” of the app kept on delaying the transfer, coming up with different excuses. The victim contacted her netizen friend who told her to deposit 510,000 yuan into her account in order for her to withdraw all the money.
The victim grew suspicious and later learnt from media reports that the investment app that she was using had defrauded other victims so she decided finally to report the case to the police, according to Lai.
