Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said at a press conference yesterday that the police received separate reports on Thursday and Friday from two local men saying that they had been scammed in ordering scams by a “middle school staff member”.
The victims are a local construction engineering company owner and a kitchenware company owner.
They were collectively scammed out of an amount of HK$175,000.
On Thursday, a local construction engineering company owner received a telephone call in the afternoon of that day from a “staff member” of a local middle school, saying that the school needed “renovations” and requesting a quotation, Lei said.
In the morning of the following day, the same “staff member” called again, claiming that the school needed to order a batch of mattresses as a gift to an elderly home, but claiming that the school and the mattress supplier did not get along with each other, and requested that the victim order the mattresses on behalf of the school, Lei said.
Believing this to be true, the victim contacted the supplier and followed the instructions to transfer the payment of HK$145,000 in two instalments, Lei said.
While waiting for a reply from the scammer, he found that the circumstances of the case were similar to those of a recent newspaper report on fraud. Suspecting that he had been deceived, he reported the case to the police for assistance, claiming that he had lost HK$145,000, Lei said.
In the second case, a kitchenware company owner reported to the police that on Friday he had also received a request from a “staff member” of a local middle school to order kitchen cabinets and mattresses on behalf of the school, using the same tactics as in the previous case, and he was ultimately defrauded out of HK$30,000 for ordering the mattresses, Lei said.
The police are now investigating the two cases, and it was not immediately known whether they are the work of the same gang, Lei said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
