Crime | Mainlander scammed out of 210,000 yuan by her friend

Scams, fraud and theft remain among the most common types of reported crime, according to the latest cases shared by the Public Security Police (PSP), racking up millions worth of patacas in some cases. Here are some of the notable cases reported during yesterday’s press conference:

Non-local scammed by friend of 6 years

A mainland woman has lost RMB210,000 to a “trust test” scam perpetrated by her male Macau- based friend, the PSP revealed yesterday.

The woman, in her 30s, is a non- local worker employed by a local casino. The suspect in the case had been friends with the victim for six years.

In October 2018, the suspect contacted the victim for a seemingly random chat. One day during the following November, the suspect asked the victim for permission to borrow a total of MOP25,000, having claimed that there had been a car accident involving one of his family members, and that he needed the money urgently.

Approximately ten days later, the suspect paid the money back to the victim. On the November 21, the suspect asked his mainland friend to lend him a total of RMB210,000, this time claiming that he needed the money urgently for his business operations in mainland China.

The victim lent the money through an e-payment.

A couple of days later, the suspect sent five photos to the victim, each showing a bank transfer receipt.

However, only in March 2019, when the victim went to the bank to check her bank transfer history did she realize that none of the photo proofs sent by the suspect were real and that the photos had all been forged.

On July 12, following a request from the police, the suspect visited the police department to undergo an investigation, during which the suspect admitted he had defrauded the victim and that he had lost all the money to gambling. He also admitted that previous borrowings and repayments were part of a ploy to gain his friend’s trust.

The Judiciary Police are charging the man for fraud and forging a document.

Large sum lost to online friend

A local woman in her 30s has claimed to have lost around MOP630,000 to an American acquaintance whom she got to know through an online social network and talked to for just four days.

On the July 3, the local woman, who has been identified as a real estate agent, became acquainted with an American man who claimed to be a security manager in the United States.

Five days after she met her online friend, the friend told her that he was sending her a package of gifts to Macau. He added that there were several luxury hand bags and some digital products included, which were listed on a receipt.

However, in order for the victim to receive those gifts, she needed to pay the shipping company USD2,500.

The victim later received messages from someone claiming to be an employee of the shipping company on her chatting app. The supposed employee told the victim that there was a package for her, but that she needed to pay USD2,500 first.

As requested, the victim transferred MOP19,000 to a bank account provided by the “shipping employee”. However, not only did she not get her package, but she was also told by the same “shipping employee” that she needed to pay more because a large amount of cash had been found inside her package.

Following the instructions of the “shipping employee”, the victim visited several different banks to transfer an additional HKD615,000.

Only on July 12, after being alerted by a friend who suspected fraud, did the victim report the incident to the police.

Couple lent HKD30m to acquaintance

A local couple has been defrauded of HKD30 million by an acquaintance.

The suspect is a 48-year-old local man, surnamed Lau, who claimed to be a businessman. In 2014, the couple lent Lau a total of HKD30 million for him to deal with a supposed emergency.

At the beginning of 2019, Lau paid the victims back with several cheques. However, when the couple went to bank to withdraw the money, the bank informed the couple that the cheques could not be cashed out due to a cash shortage. 

The suspect admitted to the fraud to the police department.

HK residents arrested for drugs

An 18-year-old Hong Kong boy and a 16-year-old Hong Kong girl have been referred to the prosecution authority after they were found to have been involved in drug-related crimes.

Both have been charged with consuming drugs (cocaine). The boy was indicted on another charge for his drug-dealing behavior.

The boy said that he was paid more than HKD3,000 a day to sell drugs in Macau. On Saturday night, the police caught the boy at Rua de Malaca with 20 small packages of cocaine (7.35 grams in total) in his pocket.

The girl, who is the boy’s girlfriend, was discovered in the hotel room where they were staying, following the boy’s detention by the police. Both tested positive for drugs.

Two dealers caught stealing from casinos

Two dealers have been caught stealing from their places of employment, which are casinos.

In one of the cases, a 49-year-old local woman stole HKD120,000 from her gaming table while on duty.

In another case, a local man in his 30s stole a total of HKD165,000 from his employing casino. In this case, the man under question had been colluding with two men, one of whom is a local and the other of whom remains unidentified, on his gaming table.

The male dealer colluded with the other two men in different months of this year. He kept distributing money to his partners, who pretended to be gamblers at his table.