The Judiciary Police (PJ) have prevented a young man from the Chinese mainland from losing one million yuan (1.18 million patacas) to a “fake police” phone scam, a spokesman revealed during a regular press conference yesterday.
According to PJ spokesman Cheong Kim Fong, the Judiciary Police received a notification last Friday from the Chinese mainland’s public security authorities warning them that a mainland citizen in Macau was being targeted by telecom fraudsters.
PJ officers immediately took action to locate the victim and question him about the case at the PJ headquarters, Cheong said, adding that it was only then that the victim realised he had fallen prey to an impersonation scam involving fraudsters posing as mainland police officers and prosecutors.
The victim told officers he had received a call from someone claiming to be a public security officer, who claimed that his mobile phone number had been used to send a large volume of fraudulent text messages. The caller demanded that the victim cooperate with a criminal investigation, later requesting money under various pretexts.
Cheong noted that the victim had intended to transfer one million yuan last Friday, but the transaction was successfully blocked by the police intervention.
2 more ‘fake police’ scam victims
Meanwhile, Cheong also announced that two local residents lost a combined total of 579,960 patacas in similar “fake police” scams early this week.
Both victims reported receiving calls from individuals claiming to be public security officers. They were instructed to cooperate with an investigation and enable a screen-sharing function on their mobile phones to undergo a “financial review”.
After following these instructions, both victims unwittingly provided their complete banking details, online banking passwords, and verification codes. They subsequently discovered that 550,000 patacas and 29,960 patacas, respectively, had been drained from their accounts, prompting them to report the cases separately to the Judiciary Police.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape. – Photo: Armindo Neves
