Crime | 2.5 million patacas lost in a month of mask scams

From February 18 to March 23, the Judiciary Police (PJ) received 41 cases of mask scams involving 55 victims, the law enforcement authority disclosed yesterday. These scams have reportedly caused the victims to lose a combined 2.53 million patacas.
Not all victims were Macau residents, who have enjoyed a regular and uninterrupted supply of masks in the previous two months or so, the PJ reported. Among the 55 victims, there was one Hong Kong resident, one mainland Chinese resident and a Singaporean.
The most serious of the cases allegedly involved a monetary loss of 1.21 million patacas.
At yesterday’s police press briefing, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) unveiled the details of one such case unearthed on February 22.
The 30-year-old victim met the local suspect, aged 26 and surnamed Lei, over a mobile messaging app on February 5. The suspect, who told the police that he worked as a food delivery man, claimed to the victim that he had masks to be sold for 1,000 patacas per 80 pieces.
That night, the victim met Lei near the St Lawrence Church and paid him the amount he had asked for. Upon receiving the money, the suspect told the victim that the masks would be delivered on February 14.
On February 22, having still not received the masks, the victim reported the case to the PSP, who arrested Lei on March 20 at his residence on Rua do Barca.
The suspect later confessed to the police that he had scammed the victim with the proclaimed mask sale. He also said he had already spent all the money.
The PJ, meanwhile, reported a case officially categorized as abuse of trust, involving a building security guard appropriating a management fee collected on her employer’s behalf.
Surnamed Kam, the 61-year-old local female guard worked at a residential building located in NAPE. Part of her job was to collect the management fee from residents of the building. She started working with the management company in September 2019.
The case was discovered by the accounting department of the management company on March 21, 2020. The accounting clerks found out that the company has not received the management fee from the residential building, which should have been submitted by the suspect.
During the investigation, the suspect confessed to the PJ that she had appropriated the money, amounting to 75,830 patacas in total, before losing it all at the gambling tables.
Meanwhile, another fraud reported by the police yesterday concerned a 17-year-old local male student in a scam commonly known as “Loco London Gold” that took place in 2018.
In this case, the suspect managed to convince the victim into making investment with him worth a total of 103,000 patacas.
Later it turned out that the fund had all been lost and the victim reported the scam to the police.
The investigation uncovered that the suspect used to work with a company, which has now ceased operation. The PJ noted that the investigation will continue to try to discover if more victims exist.