Crime | Police looking for man responsible for two scams

Authorities are looking for a suspect possibly responsible for two scams from which he obtained a total of HKD50,000, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported in a press conference yesterday.

The PJ reported two fraud cases, with the victims of each independently stating a suspect of the same name, leading investigators to believe that the same individual might be responsible for both crimes. Both victims are local residents.

Regarding the first case, the victim, while searching online for an apartment to rent, met the suspect on an online social network on August 27. The suspect claimed that his sister had an apartment available, and that he could rent the apartment for MOP12,000, including a parking space.

After paying a visit to the apartment, the victim decided to rent it, having reached an agreement with the suspect.

The suspect then said that the victim should pay four months of rent in advance, with a first installment of MOP15,000. The victim verbally agreed to this, prior to signing any agreement.

On September 1, the victim wanted to sign the contract with the suspect, but the suspect informed him that the house had already been given to a real estate agency.

Afterwards, the victim contacted the quoted agency, only to find out that what the suspect had said was not true. Later, upon losing contact with the suspect, the victim reported the incident to the police.

The second case took place in March, and was reported to the police this month.

The second victim got to know the suspect through a mutual friend. The suspect claimed he could arrange a hotel banquet discount for the victim.

The victim then proceeded to give MOP35,000 to the suspect in order to book such a banquet. At the beginning of June, when the victim was preparing for his wedding, he contacted the hotel only to realize that the suspect had not paid for the hotel at all.

The victim then sent the suspect a request for a refund, but contact with the suspect had already been lost.

When this second victim reported the incident to the police, the police realized that the suspect shared the same name with the suspect in the first reported case.

Criminal fakes public servants’ identity

T

he Judiciary Police has reported two cases of criminals pretending to be civil servants from public departments in order to carry out fraudulent activities.

In one case, the suspect claimed to be responsible for recruiting people for a government department in addition to being responsible for collecting fingerprints from job applicants.

A victim who wanted to apply for a job at the suspect’s department, paid RMB2,850 to the suspect in application fees.

In another case, the PJ found an online article calling for volunteers to help the Macau government clear trash on the streets resulting from the typhoons.

The article wrote that a government department would pay RMB550 for eight hours of work, and an extra RMB90 for every additional hour of work.