The Judiciary Police (PJ) said in a statement yesterday that they have detected a new type of online shopping fraud, in which scammers created fake pages on Facebook, masquerading as local travel agencies or gourmet food shops. These pages published fraudulent advertisements offering buffet vouchers or fresh food including steaks at discounted prices, enticing potential victims to pay via MPay.
Subsequently, the statement said, the scammers used excuses such as “the buffet is fully booked” or “insufficient stock” to falsely claim that a refund needed to be arranged. They then instructed the victims to scan an unverified QR code and enter their password to complete a “refund registration”.
If the victims followed these instructions, they were actually authorising the binding of their MPay account to a third-party shopping platform, enabling the scammers to make purchases through that account. As a result, the victims not only lost their initial payment for the goods but also suffered additional financial losses, the statement said.
Between Monday and yesterday afternoon, according to the statement, the Judiciary Police received reports from 10 residents who had been scammed by the new type of fraud. They lost a total of 52,000 patacas, with each of them defrauded of between 410 patacas and 17,383 patacas.
The statement urged members of the public to exercise caution when shopping online, especially when lured by heavily discounted goods. Specifically, they are advised to always verify the authenticity of the offer with the physical merchant before proceeding with a transaction.
The statement urged residents never to scan QR codes from unknown or unverified sources to prevent their e-payment accounts from being hijacked.
The statement also advised residents to adjust the spending limit on their e-payment accounts based on their personal online shopping habits to reduce potential risks.
This poster released by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows the modus operandi of “QR code refund” scams. The AI-translated English text was arranged by the Post.
