Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chao Teng Hin said in a regular press conference yesterday that the local owners of a retail shop and a hardware store have separately been defrauded by scammers claiming to be “school teachers”.
According to Chao, the owners received a call last week from someone claiming to be a “teacher” from a local school. The female retail shop owner later told the police that the “teacher” wanted to order servings of a traditional Chinese dish, known as “big bowl feast” (盤菜 – transliterated as “poon choi” in Cantonese). The “teacher” claimed that the “school” had a dispute with the “big bowl feast supplier,” preventing them from placing the order directly. The “teacher” even asserted that the meals were intended for charity, and the victim could earn 350 patacas per order.
In the other case, the “teacher” told the male hardware store owner that the school wanted to order tins of emulsion paint to send to nursing homes, and the owner could earn 600 patacas per tin.
The owners accepted the orders and paid the respective “suppliers” HK$45,000 and HK$20,000 after receiving bank transfer receipts from the “teachers”. Afterward, the owners lost contact with the “teachers” and discovered that the receipts were bogus.
