A 19-year-old was arrested for making cold calls through a messaging app two years ago to a local man asking him to invest 103,000 patacas in London Gold, after which the now defunct investment company lost all the victim’s money, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said during a regular press conference on Tuesday.
The suspect is surnamed Lam, who admitted that he worked for the investment company advising on investing in London Gold. The investment company that had promoted London Gold has meanwhile closed, according to Lam.
Leng said that the case happened in June 2018 when Lam was just 17. Lam pretended to be a woman and contacted the victim, a local man in his thirties, through a messaging app to persuade him to invest in London Gold through the investment company.
Lam told the victim it was a “high return and low risk” investment, and the latter deposited a total 103,000 patacas into the investment company’s account. The company informed him again and again of bad news about his investment, and when all his investment had been lost, he realised he might have been scammed, and so reported the case to the police.
Upon investigation, the police discovered that Lam was the account holder of the messaging app and contacted him last Friday, requesting him to come to a police station for questioning. Lam told the police that he had worked for the investment company but that it had meanwhile closed. He refused to elaborate.
Leng did not reveal the name of the investment company.
Lam was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) on Saturday for further investigation, facing a charge of fraud involving a considerable amount, officially defined as ranging between 30,000 and 150,000 patacas.
