A woman from the mainland reported to the police on Monday that she had been cheated out of 6,800 yuan (8,000 patacas) in an on online scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Mark Sou Sio Keong said at a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Sou, the 27-year-old female victim told the police that she is a housewife. She travelled to Macau in the middle of this month and met a male netizen who introduced as “Terry” through her smartphone dating app called “探探” (“tan tan” in Putonghua), which can be translated as “finding out”.
Afterwards both communicated via WeChat. “Terry” told her last Thursday that he had lost his wallet in the mainland and asked to borrow 6,500 yuan from her in order to get back his wallet as well as 300 yuan to put fuel in his car.
According to Sou, “Terry” once showed a Macau ID card on the internet to the victim so she believed him to be a local resident. She transferred 6,800 yuan to “Terry” through WeChat Pay in two tranches on the same day. “Terry” promised to repay her last Friday, but then came up with a string of different excuses and did not return the money to her.
“Terry” refused to receive “WeChat” voice messages from the victim last Saturday so she suspected that she had been deceived and reported the case to the police, Sou said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Mark Sou Sio Keong poses during yesterday’s regular press conference. Photo: Camy Tam
