A local man in his forties has been cheated out of 221,000 patacas in a phone scam in which the caller was impersonating a police officer from the mainland, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a regular press conference on Monday.
According to Chan, the male victim in his forties reported to the police last week that earlier this month he had received a call from a “Shenzhen police station” where the caller claimed that he was involved in an illegal fund-raising case. Believing the “police officer”, the victim provided his personal and bank information to the scammer and added him as “friend” on a social media.
The fraudster then showed a “warrant” with the victim’s name on it and ordered him to download an app to assist in the “police investigation”. The victim downloaded the app and then transferred a total of 210,000 patacas from one of his bank accounts last week to another of his accounts, as instructed by the “police officer”.
The scammer then asked the victim to delete the app, Chan said, adding that the victim finally became suspicious and checked his bank account, only to find that 221,900 patacas in his bank account had vanished.
Chan said police suspected that the app downloaded by the victim was a “mirror app” which can allow the scammer to see the information, including bank account and passwords, typed in the phone.
