Three Hong Kong men were instructed by a “guess who I am” telecom fraud gang to come to Macau to pick up 150,000 patacas from a local elderly woman and promised a “commission” of 3,000 to 5,000 patacas each, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Wai Lok said at a special press conference yesterday.
According to the victim’s report, Ho said, she received on Monday morning calls from a man claiming to be her “son-in-law” on her fixed-line telephone at home, telling her that he had been arrested for drunk driving and requesting she hand 150,000 patacas in cash as bail to a “legal assistant”.
The victim handed the money to a man, one of the suspects surnamed Tang who is in his thirties, on the ground floor of her residential building in the city centre later that day. She later called her genuine son-in-law and realised that she had been defrauded, leading her to report the case to the police.
PJ officers reviewed the CCTV footage near her home, and discovered that Tang was accompanied by two men, identified as Choi and Pang, who were assigned to act as lookouts. Pang, a 21-year-old male, travelled to Hong Kong later that day and returned to Macau in the evening, after which he, along with Tang and Choi, stayed in a hotel guestroom in Zape.
Choi said that he is a hairdresser, while Tang and Pang are jobless.
Subsequently, the trio were apprehended at the hotel later that day. They confessed to the crime and stated that they had been promised a “commission” ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 patacas by the gang members. Pang had travelled to Hong Kong on that day to deliver the ill-gotten money to the gang members.
The trio were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, where they face charges of organised crime and fraud.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the three hooded suspects from Hong Kong to a police vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: William Chan
