Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a regular press conference yesterday that three men from the mainland have been arrested for their involvement in two separate “practice banknote” deception cases, swindling three victims out of a total of 513,000 yuan (574,000 patacas) in online bank transfers.
The two suspects in the first case are a 30-year-old male surnamed Liu and a 34-year-old male surnamed Zhang.
According to Ho, Zhang, through Liu’s recommendation, arranged on Friday a deal with a mainland male visitor at a Taipa hotel. The agreement entailed the victim transferring 374,000 yuan to an account designated by Zhang who was to provide the victim with HK$400,000 in cash in return. The victim transferred the agreed amount to Zhang through online banking, but Zhang did not hand him the cash.
The victim then snatched Zhang’s backpack and discovered that all the notes inside were HK$500 practice notes. He reported the case to the police.
In the second case, the 42-year-old suspect is surnamed Shen. He told the police he’s jobless.
According to Ho, a mainland couple faced a similar fraud case after striking a deal with Shen in a Taipa hotel on Friday. The victims were cheated out of 139,900 yuan.
Under questioning, the three suspects claimed that they were unaware of the inauthenticity of the notes. Additionally, each of them individually said that they had been offered a “commission” of 6,000 yuan as an incentive for successfully completing the transactions.
The suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing fraud charges, Ho said.
A practice banknote is generally similar in size, shape and colour to circulating banknotes. It is used for training bank tellers, cashiers and staff at currency exchanges, according to Wikipedia. Practice banknotes are not legal tender.
Macau has been hit by a raft of practice banknote scams in the past few months, mostly involving illegal currency exchange activities on the fringes of the local gaming industry.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: William Chan
