Two male local students were arrested on Wednesday for their involvement in three “guess who I am” scams, in which three female senior citizens were defrauded by their “sons” who claimed that “they had been required to pay compensation for attacking someone”, with the three victims reporting a total loss of 363,000 patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference yesterday.
Ho noted that the two suspects in their twenties, surnamed Chong and Leong, are a university and a night-school student respectively.
The Judiciary Police received a report from one of the victims in the wee hours of Wednesday, saying that a scammer purporting to be her son had cheated her out of a total of 153,000 patacas on two occasions on Monday and on Tuesday, according to Ho. He added that a follow-up investigation led the police to the other two victims, who told the police that they had been cheated out of 35,000 patacas and 180,000 patacas respectively.
PJ officers arrested Chong and Leong separately in the northern district on Wednesday. Under questioning, both claimed that a “stranger” had promised them a “commission” of 10 percent each time after collecting the victims’ money, exchanging it from patacas into yuan with the help of a local currency exchange dealer and then transferring it to a bank account in the mainland.
They told the police that the victims paid them 13,5000 patacas, 30,000 patacas and 180,000 patacas in cash respectively, according to Ho, who pointed out that the duo had been paid a total “commission” of 30,000 patacas by the “stranger”.
Ho noted that PJ officers recovered 156,000 patacas from the currency exchange dealer. Ho said that the dealer was facing a fine but not criminal prosecution.
According to Ho, Chong told the police that he was asked by the “stranger”, who had added him as a “friend” on WeChat, to help collect cash from his “mother” outside a hotel in Taipa and transfer it to his bank account in the mainland.
Ho said that Chong and Leong knew each other before they got involved in the scam.
Both Chong and Leong were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money.
Meanwhile, another spokesperson for the Judiciary Police said yesterday that they have so far this year investigated six cases about nine students suspected of involvement in similar scams, comprising four senior high school students and five university students.
The Judiciary Police urged young people never to break the law for financial gain.
The two hooded local fraud suspects – both students – are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers to a vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape after yesterday’s special press conference. – Photo: Yuki Lei
