The Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday urged the public to be vigilant against scam calls impersonating “Douyin” customer service representatives, saying that since the first case of its kind was reported in Macau on September 18, they have received reports from 25 residents who fell victim, with total losses amounting to 5.4 million patacas as of yesterday afternoon.
According to yesterday evening’s PJ statement, each of the 25 victims lost between 1,600 patacas and two million patacas.
The statement said that the Judiciary Police last month observed a sharp increase in fraud cases involving scammers impersonating Douyin* customer service representatives in neighbouring regions, and issued a police alert at that time urging the public to remain vigilant. Since then, over 100 residents who received this type of scam call avoided being defrauded because, instead of falling into the scammers’ trap, they called the Judiciary Police to inform them about the unsuccessful scamming attempts, the statement said.
According to the statement, the victims received calls from people claiming to be Douyin customer service representatives, who falsely told them that they had activated a specific service on the platform that was about to expire and would be automatically renewed, after which they would be required to pay for the service.
The scammers offered to help cancel the service and instructed the victims to maintain communication via a messaging app. The victims were then told to switch on their smartphone’s screen-sharing function and provide their bank or credit card details, enabling the scammers to steal money from their accounts.
The statement also said that throughout the process, the scammers maintained continuous pressure to prevent the victims from thinking clearly or hanging up, leaving them no time to assess the situation.
The statement also said that some of the scammers were even able to correctly state the victims’ names.
The statement pointed out that in recent years, fraudsters have impersonated customer service representatives from Taobao, Alipay, and various other financial institutions, before starting to impersonate Douyin customer service representatives in recent weeks.
The statement urged anyone who receives a suspicious call from someone claiming to be a customer service representative from any organisation or platform to hang up first and then verify the caller’s identity through official communication channels.
The statement underlined that any call requesting money transfers, screen sharing, or credit card and bank details under the guise of “cancelling a subscription” or “issuing a refund” is definitively a scam call.
The statement also advised members of the public who have doubts about a particular situation to use the Judiciary Police’s anti-fraud programme – a function available on their official WeChat account –to check the risk level, or call their anti-fraud enquiry hotline on 8800 7777 or crime-reporting hotline on 993 for assistance.
*Both Douyin and TikTok are owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance and share similar user interfaces and features. However, Douyin is designed specifically for the Chinese mainland market, whereas TikTok operates as a separate international platform serving users in the rest of the world. Notably, Macau is one of the few places in the world where users can access and use both platforms freely. – Gemini
This poster released by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows the modus operandi of fake Douyin customer service scams. The AI-translated English text was arranged by the Post.
