Victim asks daughter-in-law to remit some of the money for her
A retired local woman in her seventies was cheated out of 23,400 euros (HK$213,850) in an online dating scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference on Monday.
According to Ho, the victim reported the case to the police on Friday afternoon. She told the police that in mid-April last year, she got to know a man who claimed that he was a petroleum engineer in the United States through a dating app.
In late June, the “engineer” told the victim that he needed to replace spare parts for a project and requested the victim to lend him 5,900 euros so he could buy them. He claimed that he would come to Macau to visit the victim and return the money to her personally. The victim subsequently remitted the money to his bank account on July 5. Afterwards, the suspect told the victim that he needed money for the delivery of a machine and asked her to lend him 17,500 euros. When the victim was at the bank to transfer the cash, she was warned by a bank staff that she might have been defrauded so she did not send the money. However, she asked her daughter-in-law to remit the money on her behalf to the suspect’s account on July 12, Ho said.
Afterwards, the scammer asked for money again but was unsuccessful. He asked for money again several times between Tuesday and Thursday last week so the victim grew increasingly suspicious that she was being defrauded. After discussing the matter with her family, she finally reported the case to the police, according to Ho.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesmen Ho Chan Nam poses during Monday’s regular press conference in the pressroom of the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters. Photo: Camy Tam
