Two men and a woman recently told the police separately that they had been cheated out of more than 36,000 patacas in total in online dating scams.
PJ officers are still investigating the three cases, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kam Fai said during a regular press conference on Monday.
Cheong said a 38-year-old local female casino dealer told the police that she met a man who claimed that he is a British engineer working in Saudi Arabia last Monday on a social media platform. They had great conversations and wanted to develop their relationship. The man sent a message last Wednesday to the victim claiming that he had a fever and went to a hospital where he was diagnosed with COVID-19 the next day. He told the victim that he needed money urgently to pay for the medical expenses and would like to borrow some money from her. The victim immediately transferred 24,000 patacas to a local bank account. Afterwards, the man kept asking for more money so the victim finally realised that she had been scammed and reported the case to the police last Friday.
‘Naked chats’
Meanwhile, a 29-year-old local man told the police last Friday that he met a woman online, and both had a “naked chat” for 10 minutes. Later a man sent a video and a photo of the “naked chat” to the victim, telling him to purchase a gift card worth 799 patacas otherwise he would send the video and photo to his relatives. After the victim bought the gift card, he decided to report the case to the police, according to Cheong.
On the same day, a 26-year-old local man told the police that he had had a “naked chat” with a woman who he had just met through his smartphone app, after which she blackmailed him into sending her US$1,500 (12,027 patacas). The victim decided to report the case to the police after he had remitted the money, Cheong said.
