Gambler cashes out HKD500,000 casino win, falls victim to currency exchange fraud

A mainland resident man had recently won a significant sum of money totaling HKD500,000 while gambling in Macau. To transfer those winnings to the mainland, the man connected with a stranger through an online chat group in Wechat who claimed they could facilitate the currency exchange.

Last Saturday, June 1, the victim met with a woman who completed the exchange. The man handed over HKD500,000 in return for RMB470,000. However, shortly after the transaction, the victim found his mainland bank account had been frozen.

Believing he had been the victim of a scam, he notified the police. He then contacted the individual he exchanged money with and falsely claimed he had an additional HKD300,000 to exchange. This led police to arresting a 23-year-old unemployed mainland Chinese man at a Cotai hotel in the early hours of June 4 while his accomplices are still on the run.

The police also discovered that the suspect’s mobile phone had multiple fake pictures of mainland ID cards. This was sufficient evidence of large-scale fraud, money laundering, and electronic forgery, which led to his arrest by PJ. HT