CRIME | Scammers impersonate telecom operators and police officials

The Judiciary Police (PJ) have received two reports where suspected scammers were alleged to have impersonated employees of telecommunication companies and law enforcement agents.
PJ information suggested that a 31-year-old woman approached them on January 16 at around 7 p.m. She said that her mobile phone received a voice message at 2.40 p.m. on that day, claiming that there were abnormalities found in her phone and that it would be disconnected within two hours. The message also suggested that she could talk to the relevant personnel if she had any enquiries.
The woman then followed the instruction and was directed to a Mandarin-speaking man. The man claimed that the woman’s mobile number was used to register for a purchase in Wuhan, China, and warned her that her identity might have been stolen if she did not make this purchase. He then asked the woman to report the crime to the Wuhan authorities and claimed that he could transfer her call to the Wuhan Security Department.
The woman’s call was transferred and she then spoke to another man who claimed to be a police officer in Wuhan. He said that somebody had used the woman’s personal information to open an account in a bank and used the account in committing criminal activities. The man then demanded for the woman to provide all her personal information, including her household income and marital status to clarify the issue.
After giving the man all her information as requested, the woman was told to wait for further instructions. After her husband came home, the woman told him of the incident and the latter suspected that it might have been phone fraud. PJ said that the two have yet to suffer from any financial losses.
Another similar case was reported to the PJ on January 17 by a 45-year-old female accountant. She said that she received a recorded message claiming that her phone service would be suspended in two hours and asking her to dial 8 if she had any enquiries. After going through a similar ordeal to the 31-year-old victim and being asked to transfer all her deposits to a bank account, the woman was about to make the transfer when she felt suspicious of the issue and decided to report it to the PJ.
In a separate case, the Public Security Police (PSP) detained three people on January 16 after they were alleged to be involved in money laundering. Information suggested that during an anti-crime operation in a shopping center downtown, officers found four suspicious people talking to each other near an ATM, with one of them holding more than 10 bankcards.
Officers alleged that after the person made the withdrawal, she handed all the cash and the bankcards to another man. The officers then approached the group and one of the four escaped.
After taking them back to the department for investigation, PSP found 47 UnionPay cards on them that belonged to five different mainland banks, as well as HKD33,000, MOP5,200 and RMB400.
Since they failed to explain the large number of bankcards in their possession, with their statements contradicting one another, PSP suspects that they used the bankcards and the ATM in Macau to help transfer illegal funds to the region in order to launder the money.

Mysterious man seriously injured

The PJ is still investigating into a man’s identity and injury after he walked into the Conde de São Januário Central Hospital (CHCSJ) emergency department, blood-soaked, at around 2 a.m. on Sunday before falling into a coma. According to the PSP officer who was stationed at CHCSJ, the man was found walking into the emergency department by a security guard. He then sent the man into the department and found nobody accompanying him, nor any vehicles outside the entrance. The man could not tell the medical staffers what had happened before falling into a comatose state. After examination, it was found that he had suffered multiple fractures on his body, and serious injuries to his head and left arm. He regained consciousness yesterday and was not in a life-threatening condition. The PJ is still trying to find out his identity and is investigating into the incident.