The Judiciary Police (PJ) has been consistently receiving reports regarding phone scams over the last week, with the number of reports increasing every day.
From July 25 through to July 30, PJ received 43, 23, 87, 81, 81, and 8 reports, respectively, regarding phone scams.
Out of these reports, three cases resulted in financial losses, with the amount of money involved ranging from MOP1,000 to approximately MOP100,000.
All of the above-mentioned reports describe criminals who pretended to be from Macau’s government departments and the mainland’s police authority, asking people to pay different kinds of fees in order to allow the mainland police authority to process ongoing investigations.
The PJ issued an advisory statement yesterday, warning residents that phone scam culprits have recently started to call landlines as well as mobile phones. Previously, individuals posing as Macau Customs, Immigration or other government officials from mainland China would only call mobile phones.
The advisory statement reminded residents that these types of calls are scams, as government departments do not ask citizens to perform bank transfers or send remittances over the phone.
