Camy Tam
A local woman was arrested on Thursday for defrauding two local women out of 3.27 million patacas through the purported purchase of goods such as dried seafood and soup ingredients as well as currency exchange deals, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said at a special press conference on Friday.
The 30-year-old local suspect surnamed Chan told the police that she is self-employed.
According to Chong, two local women, a 46-year-old and a 32-year-old reported separately to the police in July.
The 46-year-old woman said that she had been cheated by Chan out of 2,853,200 patacas through purchasing goods and exchanging patacas into yuan. The 32-year-old woman said she had been defrauded out of 422,042 patacas through a pataca-yuan currency exchange deal.
Chong said the 46-year-old victim reported to the police on July 14 that she read a message by Chan on WeChat in early 2018, offering to buy dried seafood and soup ingredients for others. As the victim was interested in buying dried seafood and reselling it for a profit, she began to buy goods from Chan in August that year. The value of the goods ranged between 300,000 and 500,000 patacas each time, and she was able to receive the goods.
However, from October last year the victim was unable to receive goods on time Chan then told her that she could offer “more favourable” prices if she purchased larger quantities. The victim then paid a total of 2,553,200 patacas to Chan between October last year and May 29 this year to buy goods at “more favourable” prices. Chan later told the victim she was able to exchange patacas into yuan at an exchange rate of 1:1. The victim then transferred 300,000 patacas to Chan who, however, even after a long time was “unable” to deliver the goods and the yuan. After repeated questioning Chan claimed that she had paid the Hong Kong supplier but that the goods had not been delivered, and Chan also failed to honour the currency exchange deal. The victim finally realised that she had been defrauded and reported the case to the police.
According to Chong, the 32-year-old victim reported to the police on July 29 that she saw a message on Facebook in April last year that the seller was offering a highly favourable exchange rate of one pataca per 0.90 yuan. She contacted Chan by scanning a QR code that came with the message. The victim exchanged 100,000 patacas into 90,000 yuan on April 28. Afterwards, she gave a total 422,042 patacas between June and July to Chan to exchange the local currency into yuan. However, she never received any yuan from Chan. After asking Chan for the money, Chan gave her a post-dated cheque for 420,000 patacas on July 20 payable on July 27 but the cheque bounced on July 27.
Chong said the Judiciary Police told Chan to report to a police station on Thursday. Under questioning, Chan admitted to receiving the payment from the 46-year-old victim but denied defrauding the victim, claiming that she had been “unable” to give the victim the goods. She also claimed that she had given 300,000 yuan to the victim for the currency exchange deal.
The situation concerning the 32-year-old victim remained unclear at the time of the press conference.
Chan was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Friday, facing a fraud charge, according to Chong, adding that the Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation into the two cases and whether other victims were involved.
The fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle on Friday. Photo courtesy of TDM
