A non-local woman lost 1.965 million yuan (about 2.369 million patacas) after falling victim to a “fake police” scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Lei, the Judiciary Police received a notification from their Shenzhen counterparts last Wednesday according to which a mainland man had been arrested for involvement in a telecommunications fraud case. Investigators discovered that the man had previously met a woman in Shenzhen to collect an item, prompting mainland authorities to alert PJ officers to their suspicion that the woman might have fallen victim to a “fake police” scam.
Lei noted that PJ officers initially tried to contact the woman, who was in Macau at the time, but she became evasive and subsequently stopped answering their calls. Police suspected that she was being controlled by the scammers.
At about 8:00 p.m. that day, officers intercepted her as she was attempting to leave Macau through Hengqin Port (immigration checkpoint) and asked her to assist with the investigation.
The woman told police that she had received a call on August 6 from someone claiming to be an officer from the “Pac On Immigration Department”*. The caller alleged that a mainland smartphone number registered in her name had been used to send large numbers of fraudulent messages and instructed her to cooperate with a video investigation, Lei said.
Believing the caller, the woman subsequently lied to her family, claiming that she needed two million yuan for overseas travel. She obtained the money from her family and was then instructed to travel to Shenzhen to buy gold bars worth about 1.965 million yuan from a gold shop.
Lei added that last Wednesday, the victim handed the gold bars to a mainland man in Shenzhen, who was subsequently arrested by mainland police.
The woman only realised that she had been duped after the suspect was arrested by mainland police.
Lei said the woman had suffered a total loss of nearly 1.965 million yuan. The victim has indicated that she wishes to pursue the case.
*Macau’s Immigration Department, run by the Public Security Police Force (PSP), is located in Taipa’s Pac On district.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference. – Photo: Sherwin Hng
