There are two more cases of people falling victim to online scams for facemasks and so-called thermometer guns, the police announced in a press conference yesterday.
A local man surnamed Lei who claimed on the internet to be a purchasing agent for facemasks purportedly cheated a Hong Kong woman out of about 10,000 patacas (US$1,250).
According to Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheong Heon Fan, the Hong Kong woman transferred money to Lei through a smartphone app for facemasks, but after she made the payment, Lei kept telling her that the facemasks were out of stock. After promising the woman a refund, Lei could not be contacted.
The Hong Kong woman reported the case to the police on Saturday and Lei was arrested in his flat in Avenida do Almirante Lacerda area on Monday, according to Cheong.
Lei admitted to the scam and the case was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further investigation.
Meanwhile, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesmen Leng Kam Lon said yesterday that a total of 39 local citizens reported to the police between February 18 and Monday they suspected that they have been cheated in online purchases of facemasks, amounting to a total loss of 544,500 patacas.
Leng also pointed out that the police received a report about a thermometer sale scam from a local businesswoman on Monday.
The woman said she bought and received 4,000 and 2,000 thermometer guns for 720,000 yuan and 420,000 yuan respectively from a mainlander through an online social media platform.
After reselling them in the mainland, the woman ordered another 19,000 thermometer guns for 3.99 million yuan from the mainlander, but she couldn’t contact the seller after the she had transferred the money into five different accounts specified by the latter.
