A Hong Kong man was arrested on Wednesday for collecting money for a fraud gang, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kim Leong said in a press conference yesterday.
The 34-year-old suspect surnamed Shuen, who told the police he’s unemployed, worked for the gang as a driver collecting money for them, Chong said, adding that Shuen had entered Macau via the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal on Wednesday afternoon.
The victims, two local women aged 82 and 73, received separate phone calls on March 3 from a fraudster posing as their “son-in-law”, claiming that he had been involved in a fight and asked each of them for money to pay “compensation”, Chong said.
Fearing for the safety of their “son-in-law”, Chong said, the victims gave the suspect 130,000 patacas and 163,000 patacas respectively.
One of the victims later spoke to a family member about the incident and realised that she had been cheated and reported the case to the police, Chong said.
The other victim only realised that she might have been cheated when the police contacted her while investigating the case, Chong said.
According to Chong, the gang that had hired the suspect offered him two percent of the filthy lucre collected each time, and the suspect had earned about HK$6,000.
Chong said the suspect told the police the money collected from the victims had been handed over to other members of the gang who had already left Macau.
Chong said there were still other members at large at the time of the press conference, and that the police were stepping up their efforts to track them down.
Chong said the suspect was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of organised crime and fraud involving a considerable amount, officially defined as exceeding 150,000 patacas.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
