Crime | Romance scams continue, woman claims loss of MOP445,000

A 40-year-old woman currently living in Macau has reportedly lost MOP445,000 in a scam involving an alleged virtual boyfriend, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported yesterday during the regular joint press conference of the police forces.
According to the report, in early June this year, the woman met a man through a social media platform who was said to be a physician working in Mali, West Africa.
After about one month of conversation through the platform, the man said that he wanted to retire and relocate to Macau to meet the woman.
He told her that he needed help with some money (MOP95,000) to process his retirement in Mali.
The woman agreed to help and transferred the amount to the account provided by him. After less than two weeks, the man contacted her again, saying that a war had started in Mali and the only way he could exit the country was by renting a private airplane. For this, he claimed he needed an extra MOP160,000.
The woman believed the story and once again transferred the money to a bank account.
On July 20, the man contacted her again, informing her that he had been able to fly to Beijing, where he claimed he was calling from. He made several excuses to request large sums of money from the woman, this time asking for MOP300,000 to process a medical certificate that would allow him to enter Macau.
The woman said that she did not have this sum available but transferred half the amount (MOP150,000), hoping that it would help to solve the problem.
The calls for money did not cease there. A few days later, he contacted her again asking for another MOP200,000, claiming that he needed to pay for the private plane parking at the airport so he could finally depart to Macau.
Since she did not have any money anymore, she asked a friend for a loan of MOP40,000 that she then transferred to the man.
After this last transfer, she lost contact with the man. She realized only then that she had been involved in a scam and filed a complaint with the PJ.
She said she had lost a total of MOP445,000.
The PJ is investigating the case but, like many other similar cases, it is unlikely that the PJ will be able to locate any suspects.
In a separate and unrelated case also reported by the police force, the PJ said that a man had reported the loss of a total sum of RMB29,870 over a mobile application (app) that he installed under the recommendation of a woman he met online.
The case, reported to the PJ on August 12, had occurred a few weeks earlier when the 44-year-old man found a woman who said she would be able to provide him with a wide choice of young women who would provide sex services to him.
She then convinced him to download and install an app that he had to pay RMB38 in order to become a member of the group.
He later realized that the app included several games that he could play to win money. He made several investments of increasing amounts of RMB588, RMB1,368, RMB3,888, and finally RMB13,988.
After that, he wanted to withdraw his earnings, but he was asked to pay an additional fee of RMB10,000. He then lost contact with the people from the app, filling a case with PJ for fraud.