A local woman in her fifties has been cheated out of 600,000 yuan (674,000 patacas) in an investment scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Chan, the victim met a man who claimed to be the vice chairman of a mainland business union through WeChat in April, who said that he could teach her how to invest. The scammer even claimed that he went to Hong Kong in early May to investigate and negotiate “investment projects”. He then invited her to join a WeChat investment group where several investment projects were displayed, all of which claimed to be “profitable every day”.
The victim got hooked and made two small investments initially. One investment claimed that for every 500 yuan invested, there would be a profit of 25 yuan per month. The other investment claimed that for every 4,000 yuan invested, there would be a profit of 100 yuan per week.
The victim received the promised profit at first and on Friday, she increased her investment to over 600,000 yuan. However, she was later removed from the purported investment group. She then enquired with the Hong Kong company and discovered that the company had no such investment projects. Finally realising that she had been cheated, she reported the case to the police last Friday.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference.
