Crime | Scams on money exchanging schemes growing

The Judiciary Police (PJ) informed in a press conference yesterday that more cases related to crimes of money exchange have been reported over the weekend. This follows  information released last week of a local resident who was robbed when performing this kind of transaction.

This time, the cases reported all related to mainland residents in both the victims and suspects.

The first case occurred on June 20 when the victim, a 30-year-old woman from the mainland, met two suspects in a casino in Cotai who offered to exchange money from RMB to HKD at a favorable rate.

The woman accepted the offer and handed them RMB470,000 cash, believing that she would receive in exchange HKD520,000.

The victim then was led to a hotel room in the same building in order to effect the transaction.

The suspects used first a PayPal account and then an online banking account to transfer an equivalent to RMB70,000 to the victim, claiming after that they were experiencing problems using online banking and trying to postpone the remaining transaction to the next day.

The victim refused to delay the transaction, but she was forced to leave the room by the men who stated that there was no way to perform the transaction at that time and they would do it at a later opportunity.

The woman returned to the same room the next day (June 21) and tried to find the men from 11 a.m., without success, until she found them at 10 p.m. in a restaurant within the casino area. She approached them to request her money.

They denied knowing the woman or having had any deal with her. The dispute that followed led the casino security to call the police to intervene.

The women filed a complaint against the two men for high-value swindling.

A separate case took place on June 23 at around 1.30 p.m. A 34-year-old man from the mainland was involved in a similar scam carried out by another two suspects (aged 37 and 24), also from the mainland.

Like the previous victim, the man was lured into the currency exchange scheme. This time he made use of two online banking accounts to transfer electronically RMB50,000 and RMB38,550 respectively to his scammers.

According to the information collected, he was expecting to receive an amount of HKD100,000 in exchange.

Similarities from the first case continue in that the scammers transferred HKD55,000 into the victim’s account as a first transfer, claiming that the victim’s second transfer to their account was not yet viewable.

On the basis of such claims the men postponed the second transfer, exiting the casino. The victim followed them trying to force them to repay him and eventually he ended up being attacked by the two suspects who then ran away.

The victim decided to seek help from the police and pressed charges against the two suspects.

Very quickly, the PJ found and arrested the first suspect, completing the arrests around one hour later, when the second individual was caught while trying to cross into the mainland at the Border Gate.

When questioned by the police, both suspects denied the crime.

They were presented to the Public Prosecutions Office on the basis of the crime of high-value swindle.

Hostel in Inner Harbor used for drug consumption

The Judiciary Police (PJ) has performed an operation targeting a hostel in the Inner Harbor district on Praça de Ponte e Horta, on suspicion of being used for drug trafficking and consumption, a PJ spokesperson informed yesterday in press conference held at their headquarters.

In the operation held on June 23, the police said they intercepted a Thai women (44), holder of a Hong Kong identification card, who had several instruments used in drug consumption in her room.

When questioned by the police, she admitted the crime but when taken to the PJ headquarters, the force learned that she had previously been arrested for a similar crime back in 2015. At the time she had been deported from the region and imposed with a penalty forbidding her from reentry for a period of five years.

The PJ also found out that she was not stopped from entering the region this time since some of the information on her documents was different, such as her parents’ names and other personal data.

Although she had been already deported, she was convicted with one year and seven months of imprisonment, which she never served.

This time, she was arrested on the accusations of drug consumption and possession of drug paraphernalia, which adds to the accusation of presenting false declarations regarding her identity.

Over the course of the same operation on June 23, the police also found, in another room of the same hostel, two Filipino citizens (aged 29 and 35) possessing the same kind of paraphernalia who also tested positive for drug consumption.

Aside from that crime, the police also found that the two men were overstaying in the region as their permanence authorization had already expired.

They were presented to the Public Prosecutions Office on the basis of these crimes. RM