Three non-resident workers (NRW) from the mainland were arrested separately on Monday at three restaurants in Taipa, Toi San district and on Rua de Cinco de Outubro for assisting a male mainlander, who is still at large and a suspected key member of the gang, in selling counterfeit products, such as “luxury-brand” handbags, watches and shoes, at “special prices” on an online shopping platform, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to Chan, both male suspects who work as chefs, aged 41 and 32, are surnamed Huang and Zhang respectively, while the 37-year-old female suspect, surnamed Zou, works as a waitress.
Chan said that since December last year, the Judiciary Police had received reports from 10 local residents aged between 28 and 54 about suspected fraud, adding that the victims had bought “luxury-brand” products, such as handbags, watches and shoes, from an online shopping platform.
However, Chan pointed out, after they transferred part of the payments to the three suspects’ designated bank accounts, they received counterfeit products for their orders, resulting in a total loss of 36,800 patacas. At the same time, the victims lost contact with the online shop’s customer service representative (CSR), so they reported their cases individually to the Judiciary Police, Chan noted.
Chan pointed out that 332 transactions had been made in the three bank accounts since January this year, adding that the Judiciary Police believe that more than 300 victims remitted a total of 540,000 patacas to the accounts.
Chan said that the three suspects assisted in collecting the payments through their Macau bank accounts, adding that Huang told the police that since September last year he had been instructed by the suspected key member to receive the money from the victims in his local bank account and transfer the payments to him via mobile app. Huang admitted that he received 200 yuan as “remuneration” for each payment of 10,000 patacas, adding that he had received over 12,000 yuan from the key member.
Zhang and Zou revealed that they are Huang’s relatives, but denied that they had lent their Macau bank account details for the payments, claiming that they did not know where the money came from, Chan said. However, Chan added, Zhang failed to explain why he had spent around 100,000 patacas, which purportedly did not belong to him, from the bank account.
The three suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, where they face charges of organised crime, money laundering and fraud, Chan said, underlining that the Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation by contacting other customers suspected of having been scammed by the trio, looking for the key member who was still at large at the time of the press conference, as well as the money defrauded by the suspects.
Meanwhile, Chan urged residents affected by a similar fraud case to immediately report it to the Judiciary Police.
Evidence seized from the trio such as five pairs of shoes, two watches, four handbags, one pair of AirPods and three mobile phones is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
The three hooded suspects from the mainland are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday. – Photos: Yuki Lei
