CRIME | Scammer tricks employment agency at their own game

Some of the documents apprehended by the police

The Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday arrested a Chinese citizen working in Macau for allegedly scamming the owner of an employment agency on the mainland.
The man, aged 39, is a civil construction worker who managed to pull off a scam involving around 200 people, pocketing a large sum of money by following the same rules that brought him to Macau in the first place.
During a press conference held yesterday, the PJ explained that the suspect had searched for the services of an employment agency located in the city of Jiangmen back in 2014. Through the agency, he managed to find a job in the civil construction sector in Macau.
In 2015 the suspect contacted the victim, the agency owner, saying that due to his position he could easily help to introduce new people to the contractor to help them get a job in Macau, saying that he could place around 200 of them.
In exchange the suspect was asking for RMB4,000 per person as a commission and document-handling fee.
According to the victim, the agency paid the suspect around RMB720,000, both in cash and via bank transfers, between August 2015 and April 2016 in order to support the fees of around 170 people whom they had recommended to take the jobs in the territory. However, those people never got their jobs.
In addition to sending the payments, the agency also sent to the suspect all the requested personal documents such as passports, ID Cards and others.
Tired of delays and evasive answers from the suspect and suspecting that something was not right, the agency owner filed a complaint with the PJ on April 15, which initiated the process.
On April 20, with the help of the Public Security Police Force (PSP), the suspect was intercepted at the Cotai border crossing.
Once in custody the suspect confessed to the scam, stating that he had already gambled away the money he received.
A further search to the suspect’s house revealed a total of 195 Chinese passports as well as other documents that match the ones that the agency on the mainland claimed to have sent.
The investigation is not yet closed, and the PJ suspects that the number of victims of the scam might continue to grow.