A man from the mainland was arrested last Thursday for cheating a currency exchange dealer with the help of an accomplice out of HK$59,500 earlier that day, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a press briefing on Monday.
The 37-year-old suspect surnamed Chen told the police that he works as a salesman.
According to Lei, the Public Security Police (PSP) referred a fraud case to the Judiciary Police last Thursday, according to which a mainland man and an accomplice cheated a currency exchange dealer out of over HK$59,000 in a currency exchange scam. Lei said that the victim is from the mainland who has been engaged in currency exchange activities in Macau since last year. He came to Macau last Monday and met Chen outside a casino-resort hotel in Cotai last Wednesday. Chen told him that he wanted to exchange currency and struck a deal with the victim to exchange HK$10,000 into 8,200 yuan. After the deal, the duo exchanged their contact numbers for future deals.
Lei said that Chen told the victim last Thursday to come to his friend’s (accomplice’s) room as he wanted to exchange 58,310 yuan into HK$70,000. Chen initially transferred 4,400 yuan to the victim’s account while the accomplice started counting the HK$70,000 cash the victim had handed to Chen. The accomplice then “told” Chen to transfer another 43,000 yuan to the victim’s account, however, the victim quickly found out that he only received 4,300 yuan instead of 43,000 yuan. At that time, the accomplice wanted to leave the room with the HK$70,000 in cash but the victim tried to stop him. Chen then told the victim that he would transfer the balance later so he “let” his accomplice leave the room.
Afterwards, Chen then gave the victim different excuses and refused to transfer the balance to him. The victim finally asked a hotel security guard to assist him in reporting the case to the Public Security Police. PSP officers went to the room and arrested Chen. Under questioning, Chen admitted that he cheated the victim with the help of an accomplice as he had gambled away all his money. The Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation and at the time of the press conference were still looking for the whereabouts of the accomplice, according to Lei.
Chen has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge, according to Lei.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei looks on during Monday’s press conference at the PJ headquarters. Photo: Camy Tam
