Macau and Hong Kong police launched a joint operation codenamed “Polardawn” to bust a “click farm” recruitment gang active in both special administrative regions, arresting 56 suspects, including three alleged key members, involved in 131 fraud cases totalling over 7.8 million patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to Wikipedia, a click farm is a form of click fraud where a large group of low-paid workers are hired to click on paid advertising links for the click fraudster, aka click farm master or click farmer.
Lou said that since October last year, the Judiciary Police had received a number of reports of “click farm” fraud cases from residents about criminals defrauding them online under the guise of recruiting part-time click-farm workers, adding that between January and September this year, PJ officers investigated 79 alleged fraud cases involving about 4.7 million patacas.
Lou pointed out that the Judiciary Police attach great importance to such scams and therefore have set up a special team to analyse and investigate them.
After identifying the three key members hiding in Hong Kong, the Judiciary Police and their counterparts in Hong Kong launched a joint operation in the middle of this month, Lou noted.
Lou said that on Monday, PJ officers separately arrested 10 local men, aged between 19 and 40, including a Public Security Police (PSP) officer who joined the force in 2005, at their homes and workplaces, for selling their bank accounts to the three key members via an online platform, and registering a local phone number for the trio. Lou said that the 10 local suspects cheated at least 48 locals, aged between 18 and 69, out of a total of 2.6 million patacas.
According to Lou, the Hong Kong police arrested 34 men and 12 women, including the three key members, aged between 18 and 60, in connection with at least 83 fraud cases involving about HK$5.1 million. Lou pointed out that two of the key members hold Macau ID cards (BIR).
The Judiciary Police froze and seized 44 local bank accounts from the 10 local suspects, Lou said, adding that under questioning, nine of them admitted that they had sold their bank accounts on the internet for a fee of between HK$500 and HK$8,000, while another admitted that he had received over 3,000 patacas to register a mobile phone number for the gang.
After analysing the bank account records, the Judiciary Police found that after the gang received the stolen money, it was immediately transferred through multiple bank accounts, and eventually, most of the money was remitted to the bank account of one of the key members in Hong Kong who laundered the money using virtual currency, Lou noted.
According to Lou, the gang had been in operation since July last year, adding that the Judiciary Police will continue to trace other people possibly involved and the whereabouts of the stolen money, in cooperation with the Hong Kong police. Lou said that the Judiciary Police did not rule out that more people will be arrested.
The Judiciary Police had announced in a short statement on Tuesday that they arrested 10 locals involving suspected fraud and money laundering.
Evidence seized from the 10 local suspects such as mobile phones, credit cards, bank books and Hong Kong dollar banknotes are displayed during yesterday’s special press conference hosted by Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai (centre) and four PJ officers at the PJ headquarters in Zape.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
