Currency exchange scams are back
The Judiciary Police (PJ) has recorded over the last weekend a total of three cases of scams in currency exchange related to casino activities in Macau, a PJ spokesperson revealed yesterday at the regular joint press conference of the police forces.
In one of the cases, a man from the mainland allegedly lost some HKD25,000 after having exchanged RMB for HKD in casino chips with a suspect who is also a mainland resident.
According to the PJ, the two met at a casino, and, after a first transaction in the amount of HKD90,000 was completed without any problems, they met again on the following day as the victim wanted to exchange another HKD50,000.
After transferring the money (in RMB) to the suspect via WeChat Pay, the suspect then claimed that did not have enough chips, and handed only HKD20,000 to the victim, saying that he needed to find one of his friends to obtain the remaining HKD30,000. In reality, he fled the scene and blocked the victim from WeChat in an attempt to escape, but the victim found him later in another casino in the NAPE area and confronted him.
At this time, he handed another HKD5,000 to the victim and wanted to issue a debt declaration for the remaining HKD25,000 but the victim did not accept it and they started arguing noisily, attracting the attention of the casino security, who called the police.
The suspect told later the PJ that he had come to Macau to try to get money to pay his son’s medical expenses, amounting to HKD260,000.
In the other two cases, the victims, while attempting to exchange RMB for HKD currency to gamble in the casino, were given fake HKD banknotes, having reportedly lost some RMB90,509. As in the first case, both the victims and the suspects are tourists from the mainland.
