A local 20-year-old unemployed man, who goes by the name “Ekko” on social media and cheated at least 27 people out of 25,000 patacas in an online scam selling facemasks, told the police he wanted to commit suicide because of the fear that he would be caught soon as the police had detected similar facemasks scams recently,
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference on Saturday.
According to Ho, the suspect said he wanted to jump off a building to end his life, but was afraid of dying, so he turned himself in to the police.
Ho said that two residents reported to the police on Friday that they had ordered facemasks from a social platform user name called “Ekko” in early February. “Ekko” told the victims to make an advance payment either through MPay or by bank transfer.
The two victims paid 4,820 patacas in total, but neither received any facemasks or refunds from “Ekko”. Afterwards, the victims were unable to contact “Ekko” and suspected that they had been cheated.
Also on Friday the Judiciary Police received a report from the Public Security Police (PSP) that a local man, surnamed Lok, appeared to be attempting to commit suicide by jumping off a building but later called the police for help.
Under questioning, Lok confessed that he deceived many people by selling facemasks on the internet. He said he regretted the crime and was afraid, so he planned to commit suicide by jumping from the residential building in Estrada dos Cavaleiros where he lives. However, he eventually called 999 because he was afraid of committing suicide, according to Ho.
Ho said that Lok used the name “Ekko” on the internet in an attempt to make money out of the novel coronavirus epidemic by pretending to sell adult and children’s facemasks made in South Korea, realising that citizens are in urgent need of facemasks in response to the COVID-19 epidemic.
According to Ho, Lok scammed a total of 27 people between February 3 and mid-February, earning about 25,000 patacas in total.
Lok admitted that he committed the scam because he became unemployed in early February and was having financial difficulties. Lok said he had already spent the ill-gotten gains.
The Judiciary Police said they have already contacted five victims and would continue to get in touch with other victims, calling on residents who have been cheated to report to the police as soon as possible.
Lok was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) on Saturday and faces charges of aggravated fraud.
