A female visitor from the mainland reported to the Judiciary Police last week that she had been cheated out of 397,000 yuan (498,000 patacas) in a phone scam in September, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a press briefing on Monday.
According to Chan, the woman in her thirties reported to the police last Thursday that she received a phone call on September 22 from someone who claimed to be a “police officer” from Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. The “officer” told her that she was involved in child trafficking and fraud. He also said that someone had used her identity data to open a bank account in the mainland. The “officer” then asked the victim to communicate with another “police officer” via WeChat. The other officer told the victim that she was suspected of managing a large amount of “illegal funds” and asked her to transfer all the money from her account to several designated bank accounts for investigation.
Chan said that the victim arranged several transfers totalling 397,000 yuan to nine mainland bank accounts between September 29 and October 30. The “police officer” told the victim that “the case” was confidential and asked her not to discuss it. The officer also told her to report her whereabouts to him on a daily basis. The victim discovered last Thursday that she was unable to contact the “police officer” and suspected that she had been defrauded so she reported the case to the local police.
No one had been arrested at the time of the press conference.
