A local man was arrested on Wednesday at the Qingmao border checkpoint for cheating a mainland woman out of 384,000 yuan (484,000 patacas) for a purported smartphone deal at a favourable price earlier this year, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 31-year-old suspect surnamed O told the police that he is engaged in import and export trading.
According to Chan, the woman reported to the police last Saturday that she had been cheated by a local man surnamed O out of 384,000 yuan. She told the police that a friend introduced her to O early this year. O told her that he was engaged in import and export trading in Macau and claimed that he knew someone working in a brand name smartphone shop so he could purchase a large quantity of smartphones at a favourable price of 500 yuan less each than the market price for her.
Chan said that the woman did not promise to purchase the phones immediately at that time because of insufficient funds.
However, O later urged the woman multiple times and assured her that the smartphones were genuine ones. He told her that she needed to order 50 smartphones and pay in advance plus a delivery fee of 300 yuan per phone. O also claimed that the phones could be sold legally in the mainland and were covered by a global warranty. The woman finally was persuaded by O and made two transfers, on August 22 and 23 respectively, to O’s bank account, totalling 384,000 yuan, Chan said.
According to Chan, O told the woman on the night of August 23 that the smartphones had been seized during their delivery to the mainland. He sent her two photos of “documents” via WeChat allegedly issued by the Macau Customs Service to win time. Afterwards, the victim was unable to contact O so she reported the case to the police.
Chan said that O was arrested last Saturday when he was about to leave Macau at the Qingmao checkpoint. Under questioning, O admitted to defrauding the victim and claimed that had used the ill-gotten money to gamble and to repay his gambling debts. He told the police that the “documents” he had sent to the victim were taken from a WeChat parallel trading group and denied that he had forged the pictures.
O was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing a fraud charge, according to Chan.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle in Zape yesterday. Photo: Camy Tam
