Suspects include member of Public Security Forces
The Judiciary Police busted the first online dating scam gang run by locals and arrested two local men in the city centre on Wednesday morning, one of them a member of the Macau Public Security Forces (FSM), while the Shanghai Public Security Bureau (PSB) arrested a woman allegedly involved in the case, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference yesterday.
The 25-year-old suspected kingpin of the gang surnamed Mok told the police that he is a salesman. The other suspect is a 26-year-old man surnamed Hoi who has been a member of the Macau Public Security Forces since 2018.
Ho noted that as there have been a rising number of online fraud cases in recent years, especially online dating fraud the police set up a special investigation team early this year to launch a string of investigations.
The police discovered that multiple online dating cases involved the same person and two accomplices. The police tracked down the gang’s alleged kingpin and discovered that multiple fraudulent payments were remitted to various bank accounts in the mainland, including bank accounts in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Shanghai. The Judiciary Police formed a joint investigation team with their counterparts in the mainland at the end of April to crack the cross-border crime.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police and a Shanghai police investigation team simultaneously took action on Wednesday morning. The Shanghai Public Security Bureau arrested a mainland woman suspected of handling the ill-gotten money while the local police arrested Mok in a flat in Estrada Marginal da Areia Preta. Afterwards, PJ officers arrested Hui in a flat in a residential building near Rua da Emenda in San Kiu district.
The two hooded online scam suspects are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
Pretending to be a ‘girl’
According to Ho, Mok confessed that he began to pretend to be a “girl” on online social platforms in 2016 for online dating, compensated dating and currency exchange, mainly targeting male victims. The gang is suspected of cheating at least 40 men out of a total of about 2.9 million patacas, Ho said.
Mok made use of purchasing agents in the mainland or online gambling platforms to transfer the fraudulently obtained money. Hui had assisted Mok since 2016 by providing him with a bank card to set up an Alipay account in the mainland, Ho said.
A local online purchasing agent did not follow Mok’s money transfer instructions but chose to assist the Judiciary Police in their investigation.
Mok got wind of the purchasing agent’s police report and, pretending to be a PJ officer, told the agent to return the money to the victim so that he could use another way to cheat the victim out of the money, according to Ho.
The police have so far been able to confirm that Mok committed at least six online dating, compensated dating or currency exchange fraud cases when the six victims reported their respective cases to the police, according to Ho.
Ho added that PJ officers asked two victims to assist in the investigation, confirming that Mok defrauded each of them in an “online dating” scam. So far the police have confirmed eight local victims, aged between 26 and 41, comprising seven men and a woman, involving a total loss of about 680,000 patacas.
The Judiciary Police suspect there are still many more victims who have not come forward, urging them to contact the police as soon as possible, Ho said.
The two suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of fraud, illegal gambling, extortion, usurpation of official functions, money laundering, intrusion into other people’s private life and improper acquisition, use and provision of computer data and information, according to Ho.
