Police: Phone fraud on the rise

Chau Wai Kuong

The director of the Judiciary Police (PJ), Chau Wai Kuong, revealed that 150 residents fell victim to telephone fraud between March 14 and April 5.

Chau was speaking to journalists yesterday before a seminar where PJ officials shared the latest anti-cybercrime methods with representatives from different schools.

Seventeen of the aforementioned victims lost money to the cons, totaling nearly MOP11 million.

Chau explained that the 150 reported cases of telephone fraud represent an increase compared to the past month. However, in the long term, the number of telephone fraud cases is decreasing.

The recent surge of reports indicates that the police should ramp up communications regarding the crimes, Chau observed.

When asked about ways for the police authority to help reduce these incidents, Chau expressed hopes that residents will pay more attention to advertisements issued by the police.

“I hope that the residents can understand the nature of these crimes a little bit more through our publicity work, in order to prevent themselves from falling for such scams,” said Chau.

Chau noted that many local residents had reported cases of telephone fraud to the police even if they had not fallen victim to them, as they simply wished to inform the authorities about the spread of such crimes.

He also stated that non-residents should be more aware of these scams, claiming that the police authority will step up their publicity work.

According to Chau, many of the victims opened bank accounts in Zhuhai to transfer money to the criminals.

In order to raise local students’ awareness of phone fraud, PJ handed out educational booklets to more than 70,000 students in Macau.

A total of 68 primary schools, 49 middle schools, eight universities and ten night schools have joined the police’s anti-cybercrime communication network.

“First, the schools and the parents should care more about their students and children,” said Chau, explaining that the parents and the schools should play the primary and secondary roles in educating children on how to avoid falling victim to cybercrime.

PJ has been inviting students in middle schools to play the role of “anti-crime pioneers.” Previously, PJ enrolled 105 students as pioneers, and will recruit an additional 150 students in 2017. PJ hopes these students will spread this information among their peers.