Two local women in their seventies and eighties, who fell for a “guess who I am” phone scam, were cheated by three Hong Kong members of a fraud gang out of HK$400,000 (411,700 patacas) and 283,340 patacas respectively, Judiciary Police spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference on Saturday.
According to Ho, the three suspects, whom the Judiciary Police believe were assigned by the gang to come to Macau to collect and transfer the money it defrauded from the two victims. The trio aged between 31 and 53 are surnamed Lee, Wong, and Ho.
Ho said that the two senior citizens each received a phone call on February 19 and on Friday respectively from scammers who claimed that their sons had been arrested for hooking up with other people’s wives and attacking some people, requesting from each victim a large sum of money to pay bail.
Ho added that the victim in her seventies reported that she had received a call from her “son” on February 19, claiming that he had changed his phone number, asking her to write down the number before hanging up. Two days later, the “son” called the victim again, claiming that he needed money for an urgent matter, after which the victim followed the instructions to withdraw HK$50,000 which she took to a shop nearby on Rua do Rebanho to hand it over to a woman. At noon on the same day, the “son” asked to borrow another HK$130,000 for an “emergency”, the victim withdrew the money and went to the same place to hand over the additional cash to the same woman, according to Ho.
On Wednesday morning, the “son” phoned the victim again, claiming that the urgent matter had not been resolved, and asked her to follow his instructions to go to a place near a bank on Avenida de Horta e Costa and hand over HK$50,000 to a man. Afterwards, the victim who a just arrived home, received another call from the “son”, asking for an extra HK$50,000. Due to insufficient Hong Kong dollars in her account, the victim withdrew 50,000 patacas and took the amount to the same man. The victim went home and waited for the news until the next day when the “son” called her again for more money. Suspecting foul play, the victim immediately called her son’s original phone number, and confirmed that she had fallen for a scam, Ho said.
The octogenarian went through similar circumstances but the spokesman did not elaborate in detail.
The Judiciary Police identified Lee, Wong and Ho as the suspects, and arrested the trio who were about to leave Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge checkpoint on Friday evening, according to Ho, who said that under questioning, the trio insisted that they had committed the crimes twice only. They also confessed that they had been paid four percent of the proceeds each time for collecting the money, and two percent of the proceeds for guarding and safekeeping the money from the police.
The trio were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Saturday, facing charges of organised crime and fraud involving a considerably large amount of money.
Phone scams on the rise: police
Meanwhile, Long Hon Wai, a senior officer of the Judiciary Police, told public broadcaster TDM on Friday that so far this year the Judiciary Police have investigated 29 telephone fraud cases, involving a total of nearly 5.4 million patacas, which was a large increase from the average of 10 cases per month in the same period last year.
The Judiciary Police urged the public to beware of phone scams and refuse all calls from unknown persons and their requests for money.
If anyone suspects that they have been scammed, they should call 8800 7777 or 993, Long said.
Evidence seized from the three Hong Kong phone scammers such as three smartphones and Hong Kong dollar banknotes are displayed during Saturday’s special press conference held at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters in Zape.
– Photo courtesy of TDM
