A Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson said on Monday a man lost over 6,000 yuan to a suspicious app after it had gained access to his bank account through his phone.
The spokesperson told a regular Monday’s press briefing the victim told the police that after connecting to a local WiFi network in a public place last week, he received an SMS message with his name in it, which provided him with a link, and that by using it he could check his daughter’s report card.
The victim thought it was sent by his daughter’s school, so he clicked the link, which downloaded an app to his phone.
After the app downloaded, the victim was unable to open it, the spokesperson said. However, shortly afterwards he received an SMS from his bank saying that it failed to transfer 9,000 patacas to another account as he didn’t have that amount in his account. The spokesperson said the victim ignored the message as the attempt failed.
However, the victim then received four more SMS, the spokesperson said, with the last two informing him that transfers of 4,950 yuan and 1,400 yuan were successful. He checked his bank account immediately and found there was only 38 patacas left so he contacted the police.
The spokesperson said the victim had to factory-reset his phone as he was unable to uninstall the app.
The victim lost a total of 6,350 yuan, according to the spokesperson.
(macaunews/ macaupost)
