The Judiciary Police (PJ) busted a phone fraud gang at a residential flat in Taipa on Wednesday, where officers seized three sets of functioning communication gateway (GoIP) devices and took away a female university student for questioning, PJ spokesman Chan Wun Man said after a regular press conference, adding that before becoming the gang’s accomplice, the local student was a victim of a phone scam, in which members of the gang purporting to be officers of Beijing’s Public Security Bureau (PSB) attempted to defraud the student.
The gang faked more than 100,000 phone calls from banks and government bodies in Macau, according to Chan, who was quick to add that at the time of the press conference the police had not received any reports about losses resulting from the bogus phone calls.
The Judiciary Police recently received reports from more than 300 residents that they had received suspicious calls from “local banks and government entities”, Chan said, adding that a local telecom company reported to the police on July 25 that a number of the company’s prepaid phone cards had been used frequently for unusual calls, while on August 4 the police also received reports from two local banks that their customers had received suspicious phone calls that the customers believed to be from their “staff”.
PJ officers searched a flat in Taipa on Wednesday, where the officers seized three sets of GoIP devices in operation, as well as WIFI routers and video surveillance cameras. Based on the search at the scene and follow-up investigations, according to Chan, the Judiciary Police believe that the video surveillance cameras at the scene were used by members of the gang overseas to monitor the operation of the GoIP equipment in the flat to control the devices and evade investigation by the police. Through the call centre set up by the gang overseas, Chan said, the gang operated on the internet and used prepaid cards to connect to the GOIP devices in Macau, simulated local telephone numbers, and then impersonated local banks and government entities to make fraudulent calls.
Under questioning, the female student, who has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), claimed that she was a victim of the “Beijing Public Security” phone scam, but because she did not have enough money to pay what the fraudsters demanded, she later did what the gang members told her to do. The student told the police that she opened a bank account in Hong Kong for the gang to use, then rented the flat in Taipa to set up the three sets of GOIP devices according to instructions and online video directions, adding that the equipment was received through express delivery.
Chan noted that the Judiciary Police believe that more than 100,000 bogus calls had been made by the gang since late July, involving about 550 prepaid phone cards.
Part of the evidence seized from a flat in Taipa on Wednesday, such as communication gateway (GoIP) devices, wifi routers and video surveillance cameras, is displayed by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Friday after a regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape. – Photo courtesy of TDM
