A local jobless woman in her fifties reported to the police last week that she had been cheated in an online scam out of 678,000 yuan (838,000 patacas), Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a press conference yesterday.
According to Lei, the victim told the police that she met a male netizen in the middle of last month and they became online lovers. Her “netizen boyfriend” urged her to invest in an online gambling app on his behalf as he could not participate due to his “special status”. She opened an account and initially deposited 15,000 yuan and won some money. Her “boyfriend” later told her to inject more money into the account so she deposited 40,000 yuan and 455,000 yuan in two transfers. The victim discovered that she was unable to operate her account on July 27 and contacted the app’s purported “customer service staff” who told her that her account was frozen for suspected fraud. To “reactivate” the account the victim was told she had to pay a “security deposit” of 168,000 yuan.
Lei said after the victim deposited the “security deposit” into three bank accounts, her gambling account was available for betting but not for withdrawing cash. She contacted the “customer service staff” again who told her that she needed to pay an additional “tax”. After discussing the matter with a friend, the victim finally realised that she had been defrauded and reported the case to the police.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei looks on during a press briefing at the Public Security Police (PSP) press room yesterday.
