The Judiciary Police (PJ) uncovered yesterday a “guess who I am” phone scam, in which a man purporting to be the victims’ “son” cheated an elderly local woman out of a total of 300,000 patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a special press conference yesterday.
The victim received a call on her landline on Monday from her “son” who told her that he needed 300,000 patacas immediately, asking the victim to hand the cash over to a “female friend of his” outside her home in the central district, according to Lei.
The victim then followed the scammers’ instructions, withdrew the money and handed over the cash to her “son’s friend”, a 21-year-old Hong Kong unemployed woman surnamed Lo, and then left separately.
The fraudster then called the victim again to ask for an additional 500,000 patacas, and when the victim went to the bank to withdraw money, the bank staff noticed that it was suspicious that the victim withdraw a large amount of cash in one day, and contacted the victim’s family members and the staff then discovered that she had been scammed, therefore, the staff reported the case to the police for assistance, Lei said.
The Judiciary Police identified Lo and arrested her on Tuesday in a hotel in the northern district, Lei said, adding that Lo admitted to committing the crime, and told the police that she had received 4,000 patacas as payment to collect the fraudulent money and hand it over to two male partners as told by “employer”.
The police are still tracing the whereabouts of the money and the rest of the people involved in the case. Lo was referred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for investigation, facing a charge of fraud involving a considerably large sum of money.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded fraud suspect from Hong Kong involving a “guess who I am” phone scam from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a PJ vehicle yesterday. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
