A local man fell victim to a “fake police” scam and lost the 450 patacas he paid for a hotel room, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a regular press conference on Friday.
According to Leng, the man received a call recently from a female staff member of a courier company claiming that a parcel he had sent to Shanghai was implicated in a crime and had been intercepted by local police.
The call was then transferred to a “mainland police officer”. The victim was convinced and handed over his personal information details such as his identity documents, driving licence, passport and bank cards, as instructed by the “police officer”, Leng said.
Thereafter, the “police officer” asked the victim to go to a “secluded place” in order to be further investigated via video, so he booked a hotel room in the central district, according to Leng.
According to Leng, the victim followed the scammer’s instructions and checked into the hotel room. During the “investigation”, the victim was asked to go out to buy an ink pad and upload a photo of his fingerprints.
The victim grew suspicious and contacted the actual courier company and finally realised that he had been scammed, Leng said.
The victim reported the case to the police, and told the police that he had not been scammed out of any money, but had lost the 450 patacas he paid for the hotel room, Leng said.
