A local man was arrested on Wednesday in Areia Preta district for cheating two male mainlanders out of one million yuan in a purported online investment gambling scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a press conference on Friday.
The 35-year-old local suspect surnamed Vong told the police that he owns a self-collection point business.
According to Lei, one of the victims was Vong’s secondary school classmate who Vong told about a purported online investment gambling app in early last October.
Vong told the victim that the investment could make huge profits and urged him to invest. The victim told another friend about it and they decided to invest together. The victims came to Macau last mid- October to discuss the investment with Vong and a man who was still on the run at the time of the press conference. The suspects provided the victims VIP hospitality during their visit to earn their trust, and told them that they would receive a monthly return of 12 percent on their invested amount.
Lei said that after the victims returned to the mainland, they remitted 700,000 yuan (862,940 patacas) and 300,000 yuan respectively to Vong and the other suspect’s accounts to invest. However, the victims never received any return and checked with Vong about their investment. Vong kept on coming up with excuses. The victims finally suspected that they had been cheated and decided to report the case to the Judiciary Police on March 31.
According to Lei, PJ officers arrested Vong in a residential flat in Areia Preta on Wednesday. Under questioning, Vong admitted to discussing the purported “investment” with the victims. He claimed that he was just the middleman who introduced the victims to other suspect. He told the police that he had been promised 30 percent of the investment from the suspect but he had not yet received any money from him.
Vong has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge, according to Lei who added that at the time of the press conference the other suspect was still at large.
