A local woman has been cheated out of 1.71 million yuan (1.97 million patacas) in an online investment scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said during a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Leng, in April the victim met a netizen online who said that he or she could teach her how to invest. The victim then downloaded an investment application for mainland stocks and invested 50,000 yuan as instructed by the netizen.
The app showed that the victim earned 1,300 yuan almost immediately, which the victim received in her account. The scammer then claimed that he had insider information about stocks to help her investments. He or she also alleged that there would be handling fees for each transaction, but if the victim invested 1.58 million yuan within a certain period, the handling fees would be waived.
In the past month, the victim transferred a total of 1.66 million yuan in 18 transactions for “investment”. However, the victim was unable to open the application recently and lost contact with the scammer. Realising that she had been scammed, the victim reported the case to the police.
