Crime | PJ unveils MOP486,000 iPhone bundle buy scam

A local 31-year-old man has been detained by the authorities, accused of conducting a scam worth 486,137 patacas, the Judiciary Police (PJ) unveiled yesterday morning in a specially organized press conference.

The case came to the attention of the PJ after a mainland woman filed a complaint on December 4, claiming that the man had stolen RMB384,000 from her while purporting to sell her a bundle of 50 mobile phones at a discount.

The woman said she had met the man through a friend early this year. After they were acquainted, the man allegedly told her via WeChat that he could help to get new iPhone mobile phone models at a special price via a friend that worked at a local Apple Store.

According to the complaint, he told the woman that she could get a 500 patacas discount per phone by acquiring 300 handsets.

He also told the woman that he could arrange for the delivery of the phone equipment to Zhuhai for an extra fee.

The woman was interested in the deal, but could not afford to acquire that many phones at once, and so declined.

Later this year, the man contacted her again, this time saying that he could offer the same deal for a bundle of just 50 handsets.

The woman accepted the deal and transferred him the amount of RMB384,000 for the handsets. After a few days she was contacted by the man, who said that the person that was transporting the mobile phones into the mainland had been caught by customs and the merchandise had been seized.

He then sent the woman a photo of a customs apprehension notification document stating the seizure of the 50 handsets.

Following this, the woman lost contact with him, and decided the file a complaint to the PJ.

The man attempted to exit Macau via the Qingmao Border Post on December 8, and was detained and questioned by the PJ.

During questioning, the man admitted to the scam. He said that he never had any friend working in any mobile phone store, and was never capable of acquiring the discounted phones.

He also told the PJ that the money paid by the victim had already been spent in the casino, and used to pay a gambling debt.

Regarding the forged customs document, the suspect told the PJ that he was part of a WeChat group that included people involved in import and export business who, on occasion, shared these kinds of documents in the conversation.

Although he acknowledged that the document sent to the woman had been altered to include details relating to the mobile phones he “sold” to the woman, he refused to admit to the crime of document forgery.

At the time of this report, the case was to be forwarded to the Public Prosecutions Office for further investigation and accusation of the suspect.