Three local residents have fallen victim to a “Taobao customer service” scam, losing 1.39 million patacas in total, PJ spokesman Chao Teng Hin said during a regular press conference yesterday.
Chao said that the victims comprise two young women and an elderly man, adding that they were separately defrauded by the swindlers using the same method.
According to Chao, between Saturday and Monday, the victims received phone calls or messages claiming to be from Taobao’s payment service. They were subsequently transferred to individuals purporting to be Taobao customer service representatives, Chao said, adding that the scammers claimed that the victims had enrolled in an Alipay account plan, which was free for the first month but would incur a monthly automatic deduction of 950 patacas starting from the second month.
Chao said that the scammers then asked if the victims wished to cancel the plan. All three victims indicated they wanted to cancel it and, following instructions, provided personal information including their names, bank account numbers, and identification document numbers, Chao said.
According to Chao, the scammers subsequently requested that the victims perform a series of tasks under the pretext of verifying their information such as screen sharing, logging into their online banking accounts, and carrying out fund transfers.
Afterwards, the three victims grew suspicious and checked their bank accounts, discovering that multiple sums of money had been transferred out, Chao said, adding that the total loss of the victims was 1,387,493.40 patacas.
The victims separately reported their respective cases to the Judiciary Police on Monday and requested legal action to be taken.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chao Teng Hin looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference at PJ headquarters in Zape. – Photo: Armindo Neves
