Resident loses MOP90,000 in cryptocurrency investment scam

A local female resident has reportedly lost some 90,000 patacas in an online cryptocurrency investment scam, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday during the regular press conference of the police forces.

The case was reported by the victim to the PJ on October 6, who explained that in July this year, while looking for a job online she found a group with several posts from people that she knew, so she thought it was trustworthy.

In this group, there was a post with a QR Code she scanned to enter a platform to find a job.

A few weeks later, in August, she saw that there were many people on this group posting images and stating that they were earning a lot of money from cryptocurrency investment. Attracted by these stories, she decided to try, and she initially invested 9,000 patacas to buy 1,000 coins (of this cryptocurrency).

At about the same time, a user in the group sent her a link to an online course that would teach her how to invest more efficiently to maximize her earnings.

Following the instructions on the link, she was able to make 126 coins from her investment. She then sold all her coins and was able to withdraw the value earned in cash, a fact that gave her added confidence in the scheme, so she decided to move into a larger investment.

She invested a total of 90,000 patacas following the same method learned previously, and earned a total of 41,927 coins, but this time she could not transform those coins into usable cash.

She contacted an alleged manager or agent of the platform, who informed her that since it was a very high amount, to be able to collect in cash she would have to pay some 35% in taxes.

She then tried to withdraw smaller amounts from the same account but all the attempts failed, leading her to suspect that the scheme was a fraud.

She then decided to report to the PJ, claiming the loss of 90,000 patacas.