Judiciary Police (PJ) urged residents in a statement on Friday to be wary of phone calls from purported local health authorities’ staff, which are a scam.
According to the statement, residents recently reported to the police that they had received a call from an unknown number purported to be from the “health authorities’ staff”, claiming that their nucleic acid test (NAT) for COVID-19 turned out to be positive, so their Macau Health Code would change to yellow. At the same time, the statement added, the “staff” asked the residents to provide their personal data to verify their identities so that they could later be taken into quarantine at a makeshift hospital in Cotai.
The statement underlined that when the health authorities discover a positive COVID-19 case, their staff will contact the respective patient based on their registered personal information submitted to the government, while the staff will provide their personal data to the patient for verification, rather than requiring the patient to provide their personal data.
The statement noted that since there are criminals trying to defraud people in Macau by taking advantage of the novel coronavirus pandemic or other livelihood issues of public concern, the Judiciary Police are urging the public to be wary of such phone scams, where the callers request the victims to provide their personal data, such as their home address, ID card and bank account numbers, adding that residents should immediately hang up after receiving such calls, in order to avoid any loss.
This poster provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Friday urges the public to be wary of bogus phone calls from “the health authorities”.
