The Judiciary Police (PJ) have recently received separate reports from two residents about an online investment scam, saying that they had followed the advice of an “investment expert” after having been added to a WhatsApp group by a person whom they did not know, incurring a total loss of over one million patacas.
According to a PJ statement yesterday, the two victims told the police that after they had joined the group, a member pretending to be an “investment expert” shared his or her opinion on investments, with other group members also claiming that they had managed to earn a lot of money by following the purported expert’s investment steps. Both told the police that they installed a certain app on their phone, registered an account and transferred money to a certain bank account for purported investment purposes at the request of an “investment manager” who told them that they could earn an “extremely high return” from an investment project.
The two victims reported their respective cases to the police after they were unable to withdraw their money from their respective “account”, the statement said, adding that each of them had been persuaded to “invest” in two different projects.
In the statement, residents were once again urged to stay vigilant against investment scams and to activate their social media accounts’ “Who can add me to groups” option, in order to prevent being added to unknown chat groups.
If suspecting fraud, residents should not hesitate to call the Judiciary Police Anti-scam Hotline 8800 7777 or the Crime Report Hotline 993 for help.
This Portuguese-language poster provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday warns the public to beware of investment scams via WhatsApp by purported “investment specialists”.
