A 23-year-old local man has been arrested for engaging in online romance scams by impersonating young women and defrauding 16 local men out of at least 767,000 patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said during a special press conference yesterday.
The suspect surnamed Chan told the police he’s jobless.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Chong said that the suspect was not a university student.
According to Chong, the police received a romance scam report in July last year. The male victim told the police that he had met a “female friend” online, and both developed a romantic relationship over the internet in 2021.
Chong said that during their virtual relationship, the “woman” claimed to be ill, having undergone an abortion and facing financial difficulties, in order to gain sympathy from the victim. She repeatedly requested money from the male victim, promising sexual intercourse with him later on.
Following the press conference, a PJ investigator told reporters that Chan had used at least five different social media accounts. Each account impersonated the “female’s” relatives and close friends, creating the illusion of authenticity when carrying out the scam. The investigator underlined that the victim had never met Chan in real life.
The victim fell for the scam and was swindled out of 350,000 patacas. It was only after he lost contact with his “girlfriend” that he realised he had been deceived and reported the case to the police.
The police apprehended Chan in Taipa on Tuesday. Under questioning, he admitted to having impersonated young women online and defrauded men since December 2021, using the filthy lucre for daily expenses.
Chong added that the police had reached out to an additional five victims, in addition to the initial victim who reported the case. The six victims were scammed out of a total of 767,000 patacas, Chong said, underlining that the police assume that 10 more men fell for the scam. He said that their identity as well as the full extent of their financial losses was still under investigation.
The local hooded romance-scam suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape after yesterday’s special press conference about the case. – Photo: William Chan
