Crime | Online scams grow as casino crimes decline

Although crimes relating to gambling activities are on the decline, crimes involving online shopping and online relationships are continuing to grow in number, with local residents being targeted, the Judiciary Police (PJ) said yesterday.
The acknowledgment was made during yesterday’s joint press conference of the police forces, which took place at the PJ’s headquarters.
During the conference, a PJ spokesperson revealed that a local woman in her 50s was reportedly scammed out of 540,000 patacas by a man she had met online.
In the report, the woman told the police that she met the man in 2019, and that they had been communicating often and had established a long-distance relationship.
At some point, the man told her he needed to make some investments in his company and asked to borrow $12,500 (MOP100,000) from her.
She agreed and transferred the money to a bank account in the Philippines as per his request.
Some time later, the man called again, asking for more money and claiming that he had to pay taxes and tax-related fines in the U.K.
According to the woman’s records, she transferred a total of 44,000 British pounds (MOP432,000) to a bank account in the U.K. between February 28 and April 12.
A few days later, the man contacted her again to give her the good news that he had received a payment of about 3 million euros (MOP26 million) and that he could finally repay her for all the loans. However, he contacted her again a few days later, claiming that the parcel that he had sent her with the cash had been detained by Turkish authorities on suspicion of money laundering, and that they were asking for 62,300 euros (MOP540,000) to release it.
At this point the woman refused to cooperate with the man. After talking with a friend, she decided to present the complaint to the PJ.

Over MOP 3.6m lost to facemask scams

The amount of money swindled through facemasks sale scams advertised on the Internet has surpassed the sum of MOP3.6 million, a PJ spokesperson said yesterday during the joint press conference of the police forces.
According to the report from PJ, up until May 11, the police had received 63 reports of people being deceived while trying to acquire facemasks online.
The spokesperson added that the 63 cases involved 81 victims, including 77 local residents, two Hong Kong residents, one mainland resident and one Singapore resident.
The latest case received by the police, dated May 4, was also included in the total sum of MOP3.62 million.
According to the report, a local man contacted an online seller who was advertising facemasks for sale. After agreeing on a price, he placed an order for three boxes of 50 masks and paid a deposit.
The seller never contacted him after that. The man was then unable to contact the seller to ask about the products, prompting him to file the case with the PJ.

Another caught with lost e-voucher card

During the daily joint press conference of the police forces, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) spokesperson advised that police had detained another person for the unlawful use of an Electronic Consumption Voucher (e-voucher) belonging to another person.
While following up on a report of card loss, the PSP found that the card had been used in a supermarket in Seac Pai Van. When they reviewed footage from surveillance cameras, they identified a suspect, a 63-year-old woman, who was a resident in the same area. She admitted to the crime, but claimed that she had found the card in the vicinity of her building.