Crime | Scams involving illegal currency exchange continue

The number of scams involving cases of illegal money exchanges performed in or around local casinos continue to grow. According to a crime report from the Judiciary Police (PJ), another two such cases were reported to the force over the last couple of days. A PJ spokesperson revealed during the regular joint press conference of the police forces that these cases involved the loss of a total amount of HKD488,500.
In one of the cases, the victims, a couple from the mainland, told the police that a 35-year-old woman who is their neighbor in the mainland had told them back in November that she was involved in performing currency exchange in Macau, which made her a good profit. She apparently asked if they were interested in being part of the scheme.
The deal was simple: the couple would supply her with HKD currency, which she would later change to RMB currency from her alleged clients. The profits of this would be shared among them.
The couple accepted the deal and on December 4 traveled to Macau, where they provided a total of HKD428,500 to the suspect, who had also traveled to Macau.
After that, they went sightseeing in Macau and spent a total of six days in the city. During that time, the couple said that the suspect handed them small amounts of cash daily (a total of HKD12,000 for the first five days), purportedly because they had been doing the currency exchange job. However, on December 9, after she lost all the money in the casino, the suspect returned to the couple and asked for more money. They found it strange that she was asking for money without handing them any profits in return and questioned her until she admitted that she had not been doing any currency exchange and, instead, she had used all the money to gamble.
The couple then took her to the PJ and filed a complaint. The woman admitted the crime and was presented to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on December 11 to be accused of fraud involving a large sum of money.
In the other unrelated case, also reported yesterday, a 27-year-old man from the mainland became involved in a difficult situation after he attempted to exchange HKD50,000 in banknotes for gaming chips at a casino located in the ZAPE area in the early hours of December 10.
The cage staff of the casino noticed that the banknotes were fake and called the police.
The man explained to the PJ he had received those banknotes from a man and a woman, also from the mainland, the previous day. He said that the couple approached him in the street and offered to exchange RMB for HKD at a favorable rate.
The PJ began investigating the case and, upon reviewing footage of the location indicated by the man, realized that his story matched with the footage.
In addition to the HKD50,000, the man, now considered a victim, still had another HKD10,000 in forged banknotes in his possession, which he handed over to the police.
Later that day, the PJ managed to locate the two suspects. They first found and detained the man, who refused to cooperate, and later they found the woman in her hotel room.
In the woman’s room, investigators also found another 139 forged HKD1,000 banknotes and a Chinese identification document. After analysis, the PJ realized that the ID was also a forgery.
Similarly to the male suspect, the woman denied the crime but the PJ says that a forensics investigation conducted on the fake banknotes revealed that they had the suspects’ fingerprints.
Both suspects were presented to the MP on December 11 to be accused of fraud involving a high amount as well as forgery of a document of special value.