Two local women and a female university student from the mainland, all under the age of 30, have separately been defrauded out of a total of 4.4 million patacas in fake police scams, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said yesterday during a regular press conference.
In one of the reported cases, the victim’s mother contacted the police on Monday to report that her daughter had been defrauded out of 1 million patacas. In March, the victim had asked her mother to provide HK$270,000 and 250,000 patacas to participate in an “animation competition,” which her mother believed to be true and gave her the money. This month, the mother learnt from a friend that the victim had been fabricating stories about having a terminal illness and had borrowed an additional 110,000 patacas. Finally realising that her daughter had fallen victim to a scam, the mother reported the case to the police.
According to the victim’s statement to the police, on March 14 she received a phone call from an individual claiming to be a mainland police officer. The scammer alleged that the victim was involved in a major criminal case in the mainland and demanded bail. The scammer even provided instructions as to how the victim should deceive her mother and others to obtain money from them.
In the two other cases, the two victims were scammed out of two million patacas and 1.44 million patacas, respectively, under similar types of fraudulent subterfuge.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: William Chan
