A man from the Chinese mainland has been arrested for scamming a gambler out of 26,000 yuan (31,015 patacas) using hundreds of hell banknotes* intended for traditional ancestral worship.
The case was announced by Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Wai Lok during a special press conference yesterday.
The suspect is a 36-year-old unemployed mainland man surnamed Dong. His accomplice was still at large at the time of yesterday afternoon’s press conference.
The incident occurred on Saturday last week. The male victim had sought to exchange yuan for Hong Kong dollars to gamble. He arranged via a WeChat group to meet the illicit money exchanger, agreeing to swap 76,000 yuan for HK$90,000 in cash.
After arriving at a hotel room in Cotai where Dong and his accomplice were waiting, the victim transferred an initial instalment of 26,000 yuan via Alipay to one of the duo’s accounts. However, as the victim attempted to send the remaining 50,000 yuan via WeChat Pay, the duo claimed that their accounts could not receive any more money as they had reached their transfer limit.
At that point, Dong’s accomplice left the room. Dong then unzipped a black bag and handed over a bundle of “banknotes”. Upon closer inspection, the victim discovered the stack consisted entirely of joss paper – hell banknotes meant to be burned for the deceased – and immediately called the police.
PJ officers seized 963 hell banknotes at the scene. Under police questioning, Dong admitted to carrying the hell banknotes to Macau from the mainland.
Dong has been referred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) to face a charge of fraud.
*Hell banknotes (also known as hell money, or joss paper currency) are form of ceremonial paper money burned in traditional East Asian ancestral worship rituals, particularly in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean cultures. Despite the harsh-sounding name, they are not associated with punishment or damnation. Instead, they are burnt as ancestral offerings so that deceased relatives have funds to ensure a comfortable afterlife, pay off spiritual debts, or pay the guardians of the underworld. – Gemini, MPD
The hell banknotes seized from the suspect are displayed at the pressroom of the PJ headquarters yesterday. – Photo: PJ
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded “hell banknote” fraud suspect to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Tony Wong
