A local woman was cheated out of 825,000 patacas in a phone scam in which the callers were impersonating a Health Bureau (SSM) official and a mainland police officer, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a special press conference yesterday.
According to Leng, the female victim received a call from the purported Health Bureau official last November, claiming that she had bought controlled goods from a mainland online shopping site without a customs declaration. After the victim denied the claim, the caller transferred the call to a “mainland police officer”, who told her that she was involved in an economic crime and asked the victim to provide her personal data, as well as bank information for review, Leng said.
Leng said that the victim signed in to a website that was provided by the “officer” and filled in her personal data, bank account details and passwords, adding that she then followed the “officer’s” instructions to sign out of the bank account and delete the mobile banking app.
In January, the victim saw an anti-fraud video produced by the Judiciary Police and realised that she might have been cheated. She reported the case to the Judiciary Police after she discovered that 825,000 patacas from her bank account had been transferred by someone, Leng said.
During the investigation, the Judiciary Police discovered that the victim’s money had been transferred to three different bank accounts in Hong Kong last December, in which 75,000 patacas were transferred to the suspect’s account.
According to Leng, the suspect, a 27-year-old female surnamed Ku, is a jobless Hong Kong resident.
Leng said that the police stopped and arrested Ku on Saturday at Qingmao Port checkpoint when she entered Macau.
Ku admitted that she opened a bank account in Hong Kong last September for a man who used it to collect payments, adding that he promised her three to four percent of each payment. However, she said that she had not received any remuneration so far.
Leng said that since there are other cash transfers in Ku’s account, the case needed further investigation.
Ku was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) where she faces a fraud charge involving a considerable sum of money, as well as a money laundering charge, according to Leng.
The suspect is being escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle yesterday. Photo: Yuki Lei
