Two residents lose over HKD4.6M in cryptocurrency investment scams

Two local women in their early forties have reported an aggregated loss that amounts to over HKD4.6 million in two similar scams involving alleged investments in cryptocurrency, the Judiciary Police (PJ) said yesterday during the regular joint press conference of the Macau police forces.

According to the PJ spokesperson, both women alleged that they had been approached by a man on a social media platform who befriended them and soon after offered to help them make money through an online cryptocurrency investment platform.

In both cases, the women downloaded a mobile application (app) through which they could invest and manage their accounts.

In the first case, a 41-year-old woman was said to have made a total of 21 investments, 10 of them in renminbi and another 11 in Hong Kong dollars. Together, these investments amounted to an equivalent of HKD4.2 million.

All seemed to be going according to the plan until the woman decided to withdraw her investments. At that time, she alleged she was informed by an app manager that since her account balance was over USD300,000 she would have to pay a 25% fee in taxes.

At this point, she realized that she had been scammed and reported the matter to the PJ.

In the second case, a 40-year-old woman invested some HKD405,000 in a similar scheme from which she was not able to withdraw any funds as she lost contact with the person who introduced her to the scheme, prompting her to file a complaint with the PJ.