Four women reported separately to the police last week that they were cheated out of between 4,700 and 466,000 yuan (from 5,400 to 546,000 patacas) in an online scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a regular press conference on Monday.
Three of the women are locals, while the other is from the mainland. They are aged between 19 and 30.
According to Chan, the four victims saw on Facebook on Friday that an online shop was hiring people for “placing orders”. Its purported staff members told the victims the details of how to place an order which required an advance payment each time and promised an eight percent “commission” per order in return.
The victims then deposited money into several mainland bank accounts provided by the “customer service” and started “placing orders”. They received and withdrew their investments the first few times, but after that their requests to withdraw the money were refused, and instead they were told that they needed to transfer more money to the bank accounts first, which the victims did.
Still, the “staff members” kept coming up with excuses and asked them to deposit more and more, after which they finally became suspicious and reported their losses to the police, Chan said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man looks on during a regular press conference on Monday.
– Photo: William Chan
