A local woman has been arrested for allegedly allowing a scammer to use one of her bank accounts which was then used for laundering money linked to at least five “guess who I am” phone scams, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said at a press conference yesterday.
The suspect surnamed Wong is in her forties who told the police that she’s jobless.
According to Lou, a local elderly woman fell victim to a “guess who I am” phone scam last July. The scammer pretended to be her insurance agent and deceived her into transferring 110,000 patacas to a bank account. Once she reported the case to the police, they discovered that a portion of the funds had been transferred to an account belonging to Wong.
Lou noted that Wong’s account had received money from at least four other local victims, totalling 620,000 patacas. The police also discovered that Wong had withdrawn the funds and handed them over to a man in the mainland.
Wong was arrested in the northern district on Monday. Under questioning, she told the police that last June a friend surnamed Ho added her on WeChat and asked to “borrow” her account, promising a reward in return. Wong agreed and allowed 400,000 patacas of scam funds to be transferred to her account. She admitted to earning 1,400 patacas as a reward and withdrawing 10,000 patacas “for personal use”.
Wong claimed that she was unaware that the funds were obtained through scams and that the person named Ho who added her on WeChat might not be a genuine friend but actually a scammer.
Wong has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of money laundering and scamming, Lou said.
The hooded suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a police vehicle in Zape after yesterday’s special press conference. – Photo: William Chan
