Crime | Resident scammed more than MOP1.8 million over WeChat

The number of scams making use of the online mobile app “WeChat” and targeting Macau residents keep growing.

Yesterday in a joint press conference, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported two more cases involving a man and women in the region.

Although using very different modus operandi, the unrelated cases were responsible for losses amounting to over MOP1.8 million.

In the first, a 30-year old Macau woman who works in a Casino VIP room reportedly met a man on WeChat near the end of 2015.

The resident was said to have kept in regular contact with the suspect until November 2016 when he told her that he needed to borrow money from her, saying that he was in the USA and could not exchange RMB there.

At that time he asked the woman to help him transfer a total of RMB70,000 into his accounts on WeChat and Alipay, assuring her that he would return the money as soon as he physically arrived in Macau.

It seems however that he had other ideas, and between November 2016 and July of this year he requested several other loans totaling HKD1.75 million from the woman.

After the final money loan, the victim told the PJ that she received a phone call from a woman who claimed that she was the girlfriend of the man, and that she had discovered their correspondence. Shortly after this revelation, she ended the conversation.

Following this, there was approximately two months of non-contact from the man, at which point she decided to finally present the complaint to the PJ on September 22.

The woman claims to have been scammed out of a total of HKD1.75 million.

In the second case, a 30-year old man said that he met a woman offering “sex services” around 9.30 p.m. on September 22 through the same mobile app.

They chatted and agreed to meet in a shop near Kiang Wu hospital.

A few minutes later (around 10 p.m.) he received a message from the alleged woman stating that in order to pay for the “service” he would have to buy a total of MOP1,600 in online gaming credits cards (MyCard).

He accepted and sent her the serial number and passcode of the cards in a photo.

While waiting to finally meet the woman, he received a phone call from a man saying that he needed to get another MOP5,326 in credits from the same cards as a deposit that would be returned after the “service.” The man again paid the amount requested and continued waiting.

At 1:10 a.m. another phone call arrived from the same man, this time asking for his Macau ID card information and another MOP7,989, which the man handed over.

After the last call he waited for about 2 hours until 3 a.m. when he finally noticed that he had lost contact with the person, realizing then that he had been scammed which led to him to present a complaint to the PJ.

Both cases are still under investigation by the police but as in many other similar cases, the chances of bringing these swindlers to justice are slim.

In an unrelated, though more common crime, also reported by the PJ, a local resident aged 28 is being charged over a theft that occurred at a Cotai casino gaming table.

According to the report, the man took the opportunity of the distraction of a mainland Chinese tourist to steal all of his gaming chips, worth a total of HKD800,000, from the table, and immediately tried to flee the scene.

All of his actions were spotted by casino security who chased and caught him still inside the gaming room, escorting him to the authorities shortly thereafter.

He was presented to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on the charge of theft.

Construction manager charged over deadly work accident

A construction site manager has been formally charged by the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) over an accident that occurred on June 18 on the site of the under-construction Grand Lisboa Palace. The incident claimed the life of one worker who fell from a working platform from a height of eight meters.

According to the Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson, the police force have concluded the investigation noting that they determined that the accident occurred due to an order of the site manager to remove the protection bar from the platform in order to facilitate the transport of materials.

Due to the directive, the MP charged the manager over article 267 of the Macau Penal Code related to “Breach of Construction Rules and Disturbance of Services” as well as article 273, which pertains to cases of serious consequences and death.

In an unrelated case, the PJ also reported a case of abuse of trust by a worker of a Condominium Management Company.

The worker, an Indonesian national (32) who has been working at the company since 2014, this August failed to deliver a large sum of money to the company related to the collection of condominium fees.

According to the complaint by the company formalized on September 21, the employee illegally appropriated a total of MOP240,000 that should have been delivered to the company accounts.

Questioned by the PJ, the non-resident worker confessed but claims that the sum is only MOP89,000.

She said she transferred the sum abroad, sending it to relatives back in Indonesia, but not giving any explanation as to why she committed such a crime.

She was presented to the MP on September 23.