Five local residents have separately lost a total of 950,000 patacas after falling victim to a phone scam involving individuals impersonating ‘Douyin’ customer service representatives, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said during a regular press conference yesterday.
Cheong added that a sixth resident avoided financial loss after identifying the scam.
The six victims, comprising one man and five women, are all middle-aged residents. They reported their respective cases to the Judiciary Police between September 17 and 20.
According to Cheong, the victims received calls from people claiming to be ‘Douyin’ customer service representatives, who falsely told them that their “membership services” were about to expire and that they would subsequently be charged about 800 patacas per month.
The scammers offered to help cancel the service and instructed the victims to contact a purported “bank customer service” representative.
Cheong also said that, in the most serious case, the female victim was instructed to activate her mobile phone’s screen-sharing function and open her online banking application. She subsequently transferred a total of HK$126,000 to a designated account in two transactions.
The scammers then instructed her to provide details of several credit cards in her name. The cards were subsequently used in 14 unauthorised transactions, involving a total of about 705,000 patacas.
When the victim questioned the purported customer service representative, the scammer claimed that the money would be refunded together with the unauthorised transactions after the cancellation procedure was completed. However, the victim received no further response and later realised that she had been deceived.
She reported a total loss of about 845,000 patacas, Cheong said.
The other five victims encountered similar scam tactics. One suffered no financial loss, while the remaining four reported losses ranging from more than 5,300 to over 46,000 patacas.
Cheong also mentioned that no arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference. – Photo: Sherwin Hng
