A local woman reported to the police last week she suspected she was defrauded by a surrogate shopper, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said during a regular press briefing yesterday.
According to Chan, in late July the victim saw a surrogate shopper on social media claiming that he or she could buy expensive second-hand branded handbags in Japan for local residents. The victim contacted the surrogate shopper and paid for two handbags at HK$6,300 and HK$4,500 respectively in late July and early this month, Chan said, adding that the shopper never mentioned exact delivery dates.
Chan said that last Friday the victim saw some other users of the social media complaining that the handbags they had ordered from the surrogate shopper were never delivered. The victim immediately contacted the shopper, and instead of informing her of the delivery dates, she was required to provide more personal details including her ID card number and home address, Chan said.
According to Chan, the victim contacted the delivery company and discovered that it never asks for the personal details as the surrogate shopper had claimed, after which she lost contact with the shopper. Chan said that the victim also found out that her receipt number was the same as other buyers’ who had complained on the social media, after which she reported the case to the police, saying that she was defrauded out of HK$10,800.
Surrogate shopping is known in Chinese as “daigou” (代購).
