Five residents fall victim to scam traps amounting up to HKD726,000
The Judiciary Police (PJ) reported three phone scam cases and two sexual scam cases in a joint police press conference yesterday, in which all five people suffered financial losses.
In the first case, a woman in her 30s received a phone call originating from mainland China on July 29. The suspect who called the victim claimed to have a lost package belonging to the woman, and enticed the victim to download an app, and provide personal information through the app, in order to retrieve the item.
The suspect then required the victim to transfer RMB72,000 to a mainland bank account due to an error on the app. After transferring the money, the victim lost contact with the suspect.
The second victim is a local woman, who lost a total of HKD726,000 in a phone scam. The victim received a phone call notifying her that her package was contaminated with a virus, and required the victim to submit to an investigation by the authorities in Guangzhou.
The victim was persuaded by the suspect to download an app and provide personal information through said app.
On July 5, the victim found that the money had been transferred from her bank account.
The third victim, who received a phone call from mainland China on June 23, lost a total of HKD600,000 after a person claiming to be a staff member for health authorities on the mainland, said they suspected that the victim had illegally sold Covid-19 medication in mainland China.
The victim was told they were required to provide personal information and subsequently transferred money twice to the account designated by the suspect.
Meanwhile, a local man lost a total of MOP 5,800 after he met a suspect on a social media platform who provided sexual services during the conversation.
The suspect requested that the victim download another social app for a further conversation on July 31, and instructed the victim to transfer MOP 4,500 to a specific bank account for the cost of sexual services.
The victim then discovered that the owner of the account was male, and requested the victim to buy a MOP 800 point-card for the cost of conversing with the first suspect.
The male suspect required the victim to provide a photo of his Macau ID card, and threatened the victim in order to persuade him to transfer MOP500 to a specific bank account.
Lastly, a man in his 20s lost a total of MOP 22,100, also in a sexual scam.
The man saw a job listed on an advertisement through a social app. After contacting the publisher of the advertisement, he was told that the job was to provide sexual services. The suspect claimed that the victim could earn MOP5,000 per service.
The victim accepted the job and downloaded another chat app, as required by the suspect.
During the period of July 28 to 30, the suspect used excuses such as introduction fees and costs for hotels, to persuade the victim to transfer money to another Macau bank account on 16 occasions, amounting to MOP22,100.
As of July 30, the victim had still not received any information regarding the job, and found that he had been the victim of a scam.
The PJ advises residents against providing personal information to other people. Staff Reporter
