Crime | Police warn against new Mid-Autumn online scams

The Judiciary Police (PJ) has reported a new type of scam which has occurred over the past few days, related to the Mid-Autumn Festival season.

In the PJ report issued yesterday, the police force warns the public about this new scam which uses of online platforms to trick people, by leading them to believe that they have won a prize in the so-called “Mid-Autumn Festival Welfare Award.”

The scammers send victims messages, telling them that they have won a very valuable prize in the lottery but in order to receive their prize they must pay handling fees.

From there, scammers ask victims to scan a QR code sent by the alleged company, asking them to pay thousands of dollars in handling fees.

Victims reportedly lost contact with the suspects immediately after paying and were unable to contact the other party.

The PJ is appealing to the public to be vigilant against this type of scam, which uses opportunities such as seasonal festivals to deceive people into incurring large losses. They are also calling on members of the public to report similar cases to the authorities immediately.

In a separate case, the PJ is warning the public about a scam that has allegedly affected several people in the neighboring region of Hong Kong.

According to the PJ, there are no local cases yet but the force believes that it is likely the scam will spread to the Macau SAR.

Similar to the first scam, this fraud attempt also makes use of internet advertising. Scammers advertise through social media, showing several famous people saying they made a lot of money by investing in a sham company. Victims are lured into clicking the ad, visiting the company website and registering with their credit card.

According to the report from Hong Kong authorities, the victims usually receive a phone call from an international number the following day, with a person on the other end speaking English. This person identifies herself as an employee of the sham company and asks the victims for their ID card number, credit card security code and other personal data.

The scammer on the phone then informs victims that the company will send a verification code to their mobile phone in order to confirm their identity. However, this code is, in fact, a banking unique verification code (OTP) issued by credit card issuing companies and it is used to complete a banking transaction.

In several cases, the scammer calls back in the middle of the verification process, saying the OTP code is no longer valid and asking people to provide new ones.

Later, victims realized that their credit card had been illegally used to make several transactions.

PJ detains 11 in illegal money exchange

The Judiciary Police (PJ) has detained 11 people involved in illegal currency exchange activities in local casinos. According to the PJ information, in an operation conducted last week during an afternoon and evening, the force questioned a total of 101 people in Cotai casino venues, 11 (four men and seven women) of whom have been detained for further investigation.

The same source said that the operation involved 22 PJ criminal investigators who performed the investigation in Cotai and neighboring areas over about four hours.

The PJ also said that the 11 detainees, all mainland residents, as well as a woman who was found illegally attempting to profit off gamblers by giving them betting tips in a casino, were transferred to the Public Security Police Force immigration department for deportation to mainland China. RM