Almost 1 billion patacas worth of scams were investigated by the Judiciary Police (PJ) in the first half of this year, a sizable year-on-year increase, the Macau Post Daily reports.
Victims ranged in age from 11 to 95, and most were female, Central District Community Service Consultative Council Deputy Convener Lei Chong In quoted PJ officers as saying after a closed-door meeting yesterday.
One-hundred-and-fifty-five voice phishing scams were investigated by police between January and June 2023; a three-fold rise when compared with the same period last year. The 436 online fraud cases investigated were up by almost 50 percent.
[See more: Fake cyber recruiters stalk Macao’s unwary job hunters]
Lei said it was often difficult for police to recover victims’ money in scam cases, as fraudsters tended to shift their spoils into offshore bank accounts.
He urged anyone who believed they may have been scammed to contact the PJ as soon as possible, as there were ways to prevent money being transferred out of Macao.
Crime in general is also up year-on-year, according to figures from between January and June – when police launched a total of 6,248 criminal investigations (25 percent more than in the first half of 2022).
