Crime | Losses climb as scams continue to claim new victims

Yesterday, during the joint press conference by the police forces held at the Judiciary Police (PJ) Headquarters, the PJ spokesperson Lei Hon Nei revealed two separate cases in which the victims lost the equivalent of over HKD860,000.
In the first case, a 29-year-old woman from the mainland filed a complaint with the PJ against a 34-year-old mainland male over a high-return investment plan scam.
According to the victim’s report, she met the suspect in August through a friend on the mainland. The suspect then invited the victim and the friend to Macau.
During the visit, she said that the suspect presented them with an investment opportunity without many details, aside from the promise that it had a no-risk high return rate of 5% per day, but would require a minimum investment of HKD100,000. It was said the investment could be withdrawn at any time without penalty.
Although her friend decided to invest right away, the victim waited until the next day, when she saw that her friend had received the interest promised.
The victim was sent to a hotel room, where she saw a large group of people to whom the alleged organizers were paying interest.
She then invested two separate times on August 11 and 13, paying HKD100,000 each time. However, two days later when she wanted to return to the mainland, she asked to withdraw her investment.
The suspect, using several excuses, did not return the money. Feeling that she had been scammed, the victim filed the complaint to the PJ.
On September 26 when the suspect was trying to leaving Macau through the Border Gate checkpoint, he was intercepted by police and questioned.
He admitted to the crime, saying that the investment money would be used to invest in several schemes such as acquiring virtual currency.
Further investigation by the PJ found that another four or five people had been duped by the scheme, but they have not yet presented any complaints to the police authorities. For this reason, the PJ could not calculate the full sum lost in the scam. Meanwhile, the suspect was delivered to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) where he is being charged for scamming.
In the second case, which occurred in late August, two local women aged 31 and 52 were involved in a scam while trying to acquire car license plates so they could drive their private cars on the mainland.
They told the PJ they met a 26-year-old Macau man who told them he could make this arrangement for RMB500,000 each.
To start creating the necessary documents, he requested a downpayment of RMB300,000 each, and the remaining RMB200,000 could be given to him when the work was completed.
The victims transferred RMB600,000 into a mainland bank account. However, after that they lost contact with the suspect, who did not provide the license plates or return the money.
The PJ managed to identify the suspect and on September 26 he was intercepted while trying to leave Macau through the Border Gate.
He did not admit to the crime and refuse to cooperate with the PJ, but the police believe they have gathered enough evidence to forward the accusations to the MP.