Two local women have separately been defrauded by scammers who claimed to represent mainland authorities, while a local man has been conned by a swindler claiming to be his uncle, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said in a police conference on Monday.
According to Lou, a 64-year-old woman told the police on Sunday that she received a call from a “Zhuhai Social Affairs Bureau official” who said she was suspected of being involved in a mainland medical insurance fraud. The call was transferred to a “mainland police officer” who requested she download Zoom for a video call “interrogation”, during which she provided her mainland bank account details and the verification SMS she received. The victim later discovered that 470,000 yuan (525,000 patacas) had vanished from one of her Zhuhai bank accounts.
In the second case, a 33-year-old woman received a call on Friday from a “Hangzhou police officer” who accused her of disseminating fraudulent information. After providing her bank account details as instructed, she later discovered that 16,000 yuan had been transferred out of her account, Lou noted.
In the third case, a 30-year-old man reported to the police on Friday that he received a phone call from a man who purported to be his uncle on June 11. After adding his “uncle” to his WeChat account, his “uncle” asked him to transfer 50,000 yuan to him twice for emergencies, which the victim did. The victim told his father about the incident two days later, after which his father phoned the victim’s uncle to verify if it was him, and the victim eventually realised he had been scammed.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai looks on during Monday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: William Chan
