The police have recorded “a surge” in phone scam cases “in recent days” in which fraudsters pretend to be express delivery company staff members and mainland police officers, according to a statement by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday, which urged residents to remain vigilant against this kind of deception.
According to the statement, the Judiciary Police and the Public Security Police (PSP) received a total of 23 reports about phone scams or attempted phone scams in an eight-day period until Wednesday this week. Seven of the 23 reported cases involved victims who reported a total loss of the equivalent of 880,000 patacas. In the biggest case, the victim lost 300,000 yuan (351,000 patacas), according to the statement, which said that most of the victims were students from the mainland enrolled in tertiary education institutions in Macau.
According to the statement, the recent cases prove that phone scam fraudsters – those pretending to be mainland police officers – have changed their modus operandi. In the past, the fraudsters used to persuade their victims – or force them through extortion – to deposit money into bank accounts on the mainland, according to the statement, which said that nowadays the fraudsters tell their victims to open an online banking account and then instruct them to take a raft of steps which then causes money in the victims’ bank accounts to be transferred to the fraudsters’ bank accounts.
This undated handout photo released by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows PJ officers talking to university students about how to protect themselves against phone scam, on the campus of a unidentified local tertiary education institution.
