Camy Tam
A local woman was arrested on Saturday at the Barrier Gate checkpoint for cheating a mainland man out of over 70,000 yuan (86,800.00 patacas) in currency exchange deals last year, Judiciary Police (PJ) Leng Kam Lon said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 25-year-old suspect surnamed Lai told the police that she works as a salesperson.
According to Leng, a male purchasing agent from the mainland reported to the Judiciary Police last October that he had been cheated by a local woman out of more than 70,000 yuan in several currency exchange deals earlier last year.
The victim told the police that since July last year Lai had arranged several currency exchange deals for him without any problem.
In September last year the victim paid Lai about 17,000 yuan for a currency exchange deal. Lai delayed honouring the deal for some time but finally paid him 20,000 patacas after his repeated requests. The victim said that he agreed to two more currency exchange deals with Lai in the same month. After receiving screenshots of payment confirmation from Lai, the victim did not check his account and transferred more than 44,000 yuan to Lai. However, he never received any money in exchange from Lai who later used two of her family members’ social media apps to exchange currency for the victim.
Leng said after receiving the payment confirmation screenshots from Lai, the victim transferred over 70,000 yuan to her but again he never received any money from her in exchange. After repeated requests, Lai came up with a raft of excuses and only paid the victim about 50,000 yuan. The victim then decided to report the case to the police.
According to Leng, PJ officers identified Lai as the suspect and arrested her on Saturday at the Barrier Gate checkpoint when she was about to leave Macau. Under questioning, Lai admitted that she had forged screenshots of a mainland electronic payment app. She also admitted that she had contacted the victim four times via two of her family members and her social media app to arrange a number of currency exchange deals. She told the police that she had spent the ill-gotten money to repay debts.
Lai was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of computer forgery and fraud, according to Leng.
The hooded fraud suspect is being escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle yesterday. Photo courtesy of TDM
