A local man and his father have scammed seven construction workers whose 500 friends and family members from the mainland hoped to find jobs in Macau, by claiming that they could help them get a local work permit (colloquially known as “blue card”) in their construction company, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a special press conference yesterday.
Chan identified the suspect as a 29-year-old man surnamed Wong. His father, who set up a construction company in 2018 in Areia Preta district, was still on the run yesterday, while Wong claimed that he’s jobless and had never worked in his father’s company.
Chan underlined that the seven victims comprise three locals and four mainlanders aged between 37 and 71. They had been introduced to Wong and his father and between 2019 and 2021 the scammers told them individually that their construction company had won a bid for a construction project in Ka Ho and were recruiting construction workers from the mainland, showing them fake documents to gain their trust.
The victims fell for it and gave the fraudsters, who charged each person from 2,600 yuan to 5,200 yuan (between 2,970 patacas and 5,940 patacas) per application, the respective ID cards and a total of 2.12 million patacas, in the hope of getting for over 500 of their friends and family members blue cards and jobs in the construction company. However, Chan said after the duo received the money, they kept coming up with excuses.
Chan noted that the Wongs had returned 40,000 yuan and around 200 ID cards to the victims, but soon the victims lost contact with them completely so they decided to seek help individually from the police from December 2021 to February 2022.
The son was arrested at the Barrier Gate checkpoint when he was about to leave Macau on Tuesday, while his father was not intercepted when he was leaving through the checkpoint earlier this month.
Under questioning, Wong denied the accusations, claiming that his father was the “mastermind” and he merely helped his father collect money from the victims.
Wong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing fraud charges, Chan said.
The local suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday. – Photo: William Chan
