In yesterday’s statement, the police laid out details about how fraudsters have cheated victims out of money in typical kinds of frauds.
The statement said that after analysing reported fraud cases, the police have concluded that phone scams reported in recent years have comprised two major types, namely fraudsters pretending to be staff from public entities in the mainland or in Macau, and fraudsters claiming to be staff of online shopping platforms or bank staff.
Phone scams
In the first type, according to the statement, fraudsters falsely claim that the potential victims have been involved in criminal activities, requesting them to disclose their personal information and bank account details, or to log onto a website, or to install a mobile app disguised as a genuine one. In which case, the statement said, the fraudsters deceive the potential victims into transferring money from their bank accounts to a “safe” account, or remotely control the potential victims’ smartphones or computers so as to steal money from their bank accounts.
In the second type, the statement said, fraudsters claim that something awry has happened during the potential victims’ online shopping process, requesting them to provide their bank account details for a refund, in which case the fraudsters successfully cheat them out of money.
The statement also said that another typical phone scam is the “guess who I am” ruse, according to which fraudsters ask the potential victims to guess who they are. In that case, the fraudster successfully obtains the name of a relative of the potential victim, after which the fraudster claims that he or she is that person. The fraudster then claims that he or she has been detained by the law enforcement agencies in the mainland and asks the potential victim to deposit money to an account so that he or she can be released.
Online scams
Meanwhile, the statement also said that online scams reported in recent years have also comprised two major types, namely online investment scams and online dating scams.
In online investment scams, the statement said, fraudsters, who pretend to be professionals and provide fake photos of themselves, approach the potential victims through social media networking sites or mobile social media apps. After the fraudsters get familiar with the potential victims, they persuade the latter to invest in “surely profitable” investment schemes such as cryptocurrency, stocks, funds and gold, or persuade them to gamble on fake gambling website.
The fraudsters, according to the statement, first create a fake scenario in which the victims are earning money, as a way of encouraging them to invest or gamble more. When the victims ask the fraudsters to return the money that they have invested, the latter will then “cut contact” with the former.
In online dating scams, the statement said that after the fraudster and potential victim become online lovers, the former asks the latter to transfer money to particular accounts, by citing various reasons such as cash flow issues, needing urgent money for travelling, payment of delivery fees or customs fees for “gifts sent” to the victims, or fees to terminate employment contracts with employers after the fraudster pledges that he or she will marry the victim.
The statement said that phone and online scams have been “highly prevalent” over recent years, urging residents to always remain vigilant about them.
This undated handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows a PJ officer explaining anti-scam information to a woman.
