A female university student from the mainland studying in Macau has been defrauded out of 1.2 million yuan (1.4 million patacas) in a phone scam by fraudsters who claimed to be from the mainland’s police, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said in a press conference yesterday.
The victim told the police that she received a call from a “courier company staff member” on March 20 saying that prohibited items had been found in a package she had sent to the mainland. The call was then supposedly transferred to the mainland’s “Public Security Bureau”, where the scammers claimed that the victim was suspected of money laundering and required her to transfer money as a “security deposit.”
The victim then transferred different amounts of money to nine different bank accounts in the mainland, totalling 1.2 million yuan, earlier this month. The victim later suspected that it might be a scam, and reported the case to the police on Monday.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: William Chan
