A local man and a local woman have separately fallen for sweepstakes scams, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said at a regular press conference on Monday.
According to Chong, the victim in the first case is a 65-year-old male retiree. He told the police that last Wednesday he received a message from a friend on Facebook, inviting him to register for a prize draw on a Hong Kong online shopping platform.
Believing it to be true, he provided a verification code received on his phone to the fraudster. The fraudster later told the victim that he had won and asked him to provide his credit card information for the prize money to be transferred. The victim became suspicious and refused to do so. Later, he found that he could not log into his Facebook account, so he suspected that it had been hacked, and reported the case to the police. The victim suffered no financial loss.
In the second case, a 58-year-old local woman fell for the same scam earlier this month in which she gave her verification code received on her phone and personal and credit card information to the fraudsters. Later, she discovered that her social media account had been hacked and her credit card had been used for an unknown purchase worth 7,432 patacas. She reported the case to the police on Sunday.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong looks on during a regular press conference on Monday.
– Photo: William Chan
