Crime | Kidnappings back in town

Kidnappings related to loan shark activities around gambling have reappeared after a long period with no reports of such activities.
During the regular joint press conference of the police forces, held yesterday, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported that for the first time after many months, a gambler was held against his will in a hotel room in Cotai after losing all his money in the casino.
According to the report, the man had resorted to a group of three loan sharks who loaned him HKD50,000 for gambling, on the condition that he pay interest at a 20% rate for each winning bet.
Since he did not pay money from any winning bets to the loan sharks and eventually lost all of the original loan, he was taken to a hotel room where he was not allowed to leave until someone repaid his debt.
While contacting his friends and family for help to pay the debt, the man was able to alert them to his situation and, with the help of the hotel staff, he was eventually freed by the police who also managed to detain the loan sharks.
The three men were presented to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) to be accused of usury and kidnapping.
In a separate case, the PJ announced they had finally detained and brought to justice another man, suspected of committing a kidnapping back in April 2019.
According to the PJ spokesperson, the alleged loan shark is believed to have kidnapped a gambler in a hotel room to see a large gambling debt repaid. However, with the help of the hotel staff, the victim managed to inform the police about his situation.
At the time, the suspect was not caught by the police and further investigation revealed he had already crossed the border into the mainland.
On August 3, when he was reentering Macau, he was detained by the local police.
Taken into questioning, he admitted to having committed the crime under the orders of a ring leader who had hired him to perform loan sharking activities.
He said he had received HKD1,500 per day to perform this activity, in addition to checking-in to the hotel where the group was keeping a room to detain those who failed to repay gambling debts.
He was also presented to the MP to respond to the crime of usury and kidnapping.

Woman loses RMB160,000 after acquiring electric toothbrush

A local woman has reportedly lost almost RMB160,000 in a scam relating to the acquisition of an electric toothbrush through an online store, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported.
According to the PJ report during yesterday’s joint press conference of the police forces, the woman acquired the electric toothbrush through an online store. Approximately two days later, she received a call from an alleged brand representative asking if she was interested in becoming an agent for the brand’s products in Macau.
The woman refused but was later informed that to cancel her application, she needed to pay RMB10,560.
She duly paid the amount, but the same people continued to contact her, requesting several more payments for a variety of reasons, including a supposed fully-refundable deposit of RMB85,000.
When she finally realized that she had been involved in a scam, she had lost a total of RMB159,861, she told the PJ. RM