Crime | Resident loses total bank savings in phone scam

A resident of Macau, aged 71, has reportedly lost a total amount of HKD1.75 million in a phone scam, the Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson Choi Ian Fai informed yesterday during the joint police forces press conference held at the Public Security Police Force (PSP) facilities.
According to the victim’s report to the PJ, the case occurred on September 15 around 10 a.m. when she received a call from a phone number from outside Macau. When she picked up, the person on the line claimed to be from an express mail company and informed her that a parcel under her name had been retained by customs authorities because it contained forbidden articles.
The same person also said that she might be involved in a case of “stolen identity” and that other people might have used her data.
After this first exchange, the person transferred the victim to a second person, a self-proclaimed Beijing police officer that asked her for the number of her license card to travel to the mainland.
The man also informed the victim that she was involved in a scam that was being investigated by the Beijing police and that, since the case was confidential, she should not inform other people of it.
In a later call, the same man asked the victim which banks she had accounts with and how much money was in each of them. The victim informed him that she had money in two local banks.
A third scammer was then involved in the case, with the call being once more transferred, this time to someone claiming to be a public prosecutor in Beijing, who told the woman that to prove her innocence in the case, she had to transfer all the money to a given account, to be verified.
He also told her that the money would be fully returned if confirmed that she had no involvement in the case.
Proceeding in fear and good faith, the woman then transferred over the course of three days (from September 17 to 19) all of the funds she possessed to a bank account in Hong Kong.
After that, she lost contact with the scammer and, suspecting that she had been scammed, she presented the complaint to the PJ.

Taiwan residents conned in Macau VIP room
In a separate case, two residents of Taiwan claimed that they were scammed by a third man, also a Taiwan resident, while gambling in a VIP room of a local casino.
The case occurred on September 19 when the PJ received a report from the victims, aged 51 and 44.
The men claimed to the PJ that they had been victims of a scam performed by a 47-year-old man from Taiwan and an unknown accomplice in the VIP room of a casino in Taipa. The victims claimed to have met the suspect a few days before in Taiwan, and he had offered them a deal to come to Macau and play in a certain VIP room. The deal was that if the men made an initial exchange of cash for gaming chips in the amount of HKD1 million, they would get a commission of HKD35,000.
They accepted the deal and arranged to come and play in Macau. After arriving at the agreed upon location they said there were two men on site, to which each of the victims handed HKD500,000 in cash, receiving the same amount in gaming chips.
After playing for a while, the men made a profit of HKD18,000 and decided to stop for a while, depositing all the chips, as instructed, into the VIP room account.
After some time, allegedly when they were preparing to play again, they realized that soon after they deposited the chips into the VIP room account, the money had been withdrawn from a different location. The victims then called the PJ.
Each of the Taiwanese victims claims to have lost a total of HKD526,500 in this case.
The PJ spokesperson said that the case is still under investigation.

Hotel hostess sexually harassed
A 20-year-old hostess at a hotel in Cotai has called the police on a 23-year-old man, a university student from the mainland, over a case in which she claims to have been a victim of sexual harassment.
The victim, also a mainland resident and working in Macau with a permit, said that while she was performing her duties on September 22 and providing information to a hotel guest, the suspect approached her and groped her buttocks.
She immediately grabbed the man’s hand and called the PSP.
Arriving at the scene, the officers heard the report from the victim and questioned the man, but he did not admit to having committed the crime.
The officers then reviewed the surveillance footage of the place where the incident occurred, and the spokesperson said that there is “strong evidence” that the man did perform the criminal act punishable under Macau law. The suspect was sent to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday.

Prostitute arrested in central district
The PSP spokesperson also informed yesterday that the police have detained a 37-year-old female resident from the mainland after an anonymous complaint informed that the woman was performing prostitution activities in a room at a hotel located on Avenida da Amizade in Macau’s central district.
On September 19, police officers deployed to the location were said to have observed the woman taking several men up to a room for a short duration before escorting them out.
After being detained, the woman admitted to offering prostitution services, saying that she had been doing so since she arrived in Macau on September 15, having received a total of 33 clients over the four days since, charging each client MOP350 in exchange for the services provided. According to this information, she has earned MOP12,250.
During the police questioning, the woman said that she had managed to engage in such activities thanks to a man, a friend of one of her friends, who was responsible for advertising the services via a website, and who she paid RMB300 per day. According to the woman, she had already paid the man RMB900 for three days of advertising.
The police say that there is strong evidence that indicates that the case falls under the law provisions for “sexual exploitation” and the woman has been sent to the MP, while the investigation to find the people behind the scheme continues.