A man from Hong Kong has been arrested for his involvement in two “guess who I am” phone scams, totalling 300,000 patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said during a special press conference yesterday.
The 28-year-old suspect surnamed Ng told the police he’s jobless. The two local victims are elderly women.
According to Lei, one of the victims reported to the police on Tuesday that she had previously received phone calls from a female imposter pretending to be her “daughter”, and was defrauded out of 200,000 patacas. Her “daughter” claimed that she had injured someone and needed money to settle the issue. The victim handed the 200,000 patacas to the suspect who posed as a “lawyer” the same day at her flat. Later, the imposter again demanded more money from the victim, who finally grew suspicious and reported the case to the police.
Upon receiving the report, Lei said, the Judiciary Police set up surveillance near the victim’s flat and arrested Ng when he arrived at the victim’s home later that day.
Under questioning, Ng confessed to collecting the money and posing as a “lawyer.” He told the police that he was recruited by a telecom fraud gang to collect the money. Ng even confessed that there was another victim defrauded out of over 100,000 patacas.
Ng told the police that he promptly handed the money to a gang member in Macau after receiving the cash from the victims. For his involvement, he received 3,000 patacas from the gang, Lei said.
The police also arrested a man surnamed Chang, who they suspect to be one of the gang members, when he entered Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint on Tuesday. Chang, a 26-year-old local man who told the police that he’s jobless, refused to cooperate.
Chang and Ng were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing fraud charges.
The two hooded fraud suspects are escorted by police officers to a Judiciary Police (PJ) vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: William Chan
