A 71-year-old Hong Kong woman was arrested on Monday for her alleged involvement in scamming a local teenager in 2018, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference yesterday.
Ho identified the suspect as a woman surnamed Lui who told the police she’s jobless.
According to Ho, the female victim, 15 years old at the time, fell for a phone scam on January 14, 2018 about an “unsuccessful parcel delivery” as it had purportedly been confiscated by “mainland police”. The victim followed the scammer’s instructions and gave the suspect cash in yuan, New Zealand dollars and patacas as well as her mother’s bank card and the latter’s ATM password near her home in the northern district on January 20, 2018.
The victim’s mother discovered that HK$71,100 had vanished from her account and soon realised that her daughter had been scammed. They reported the case to the police on January 30, 2018 while the woman, who was later identified as Lui, had left Macau on January 28.
The victim’s total financial loss amounted to about 200,000 patacas.
Exactly five years later Lui was arrested when she entered Macau via the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal on Friday. Under questioning, she claimed that she was also a “victim” of a fraud, alleging that she had been persuaded by “scammers” to retrieve the money from the teenage victim, adding that she had been defrauded out of HK$50,000 by the purported fraudsters.
Lui has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of money laundering and scamming, Ho said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: William Chan
