Crime | Currency exchange and gambling loans prove to be scams

The Judiciary Police (PJ) has informed that two scams recently occurred in two casino venues.

The first case is related to currency exchange. The victim, a 32-year-old man from the mainland, reported to the PJ that he wanted to exchange money and that he found a man in a casino that offered the service.

The suspect, a 43-year-old male also from the mainland, then told him that he should first transfer the money to a mainland account and that afterward they would go to a VIP room to pick up the agreed sum denominated in Hong Kong dollars.

The victim accepted and transferred a total of RMB72,400 to the specified account but when they arrived at the VIP room of the casino, the suspect handed him only HKD32,000 and not the HKD80,000 as they had agreed.

The suspect told him that he would give the remaining HKD48,000 a few minutes later but failed to do so. The victim then presented a complaint to the PJ.

Questioned by PJ officers, the suspect said that he was just a middle person, hired with the purpose of attracting clients to exchange currency.

Although the suspect is being charged for the scam, the PJ is still investigating the case to ascertain who the head of the group might be.

In the second case, a 31-year- old man from the mainland claimed to have been scammed by a fellow compatriot on the repayment of profits earned at a gaming table.

The story started in November last year, when the victim claims to have asked the suspect for a loan in the sum of HKD1 million to play in a VIP room of a casino.

After playing for a few hours, the victim not only won enough to return the money loaned, but made a profit of HKD1,042,500. At the time, the suspect said he could help to keep the profit in an account at that room, depositing the chips, justifying that in this way, it would be easier to withdraw the money at a later stage.

At this time, he only handed HKD42,500 to the victim.

The victim then returned to the mainland, but made the trip back to the casino a few days after, on December 3, to play again.

Like the first time, he asked to borrow HKD1 million, money he thought he had deposited in the VIP room account to play, but the suspect offered a new loan on the sum.

After some time playing, the victim made once more a profit, this time of HKD1,053,600, but also like the first time, the suspect handed him a lower sum of only HKD200,000, giving the same excuse.

After a few months of trying to get the total profits without success, the victim presented a complaint to the PJ for the scam on April 27 this year.

At the end of last week, when the suspect was trying to reenter Macau via the Macau International Airport, he was caught by police and questioned. He refuted the accusations but the investigation conducted after the complaint in late April proved that just a few hours after depositing the chips in the VIP room, the suspect had withdrawn all the money.

He has been presented to the Public Prosecutions Office for scamming. The victim claims a loss of over HKD1.8 million.