A mainland woman purporting to be an illegal currency exchange dealer cheated on Monday a male gambler out of about 65,000 yuan (about 72,050 patacas) at a casino in Cotai, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said during a regular press conference yesterday.
The incident happened at about 1 p.m. on Monday, when the suspect, aged 41, surnamed Wu, pushed the middle-aged victim to exchange yuan into Hong Kong dollars, during which the victim transferred 65,520 yuan to her bank account in exchange for HK$70,000 in cash. After scanning the QR code issued by the suspect and transferring the money, Wu refused to pay the victim the HK$70,000, claiming that she had not received any money from him. Both argued noisily on their way from the casino to the lobby of the adjacent hotel, which alerted the security guards to report the case to the police.
The Judiciary Police arrived at the scene and took the pair in for questioning, during which Wu admitted that due to her debts she committed the bogus currency exchange deal. She insisted that she couldn’t “afford” to pay the victim the HK$70,000. She also acknowledged that the QR code that she used in the transaction did not belong to her but her creditor.
Wu has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a charge of fraud involving a large amount of money.
