Once again, online fraudsters have pounced on an unwary Macao resident, making off with MOP 300,000 in an “international gold investment scam”.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Lam said that a 30-year-old local female met a male netizen on a social platform in early June and they quickly became an online couple. During their virtual relationship, the male successfully persuaded the victim to invest online in “international gold” via a website. The victim deposited MOP 300,000 from 9 June to 1 August into five separate bank accounts for the “investment”.
Ho said the victim noted on 22 June that her “investment” had grown to MOP 430,000 and attempted to withdraw part of it. After she received MOP 18,000 cash from the website, she fully trusted the “investment” and re-invested the money.
However, when the victim tried to withdraw all the cash last Thursday, the website “staff” told her that she needed to pay to “upgrade her membership” first. Ho said that the victim then asked her virtual boyfriend for help but received no response and realised that she might have been cheated.
She reported the case to the Judiciary Police on Saturday, saying that she had been defrauded out of MOP 300,000, The Macau Post Daily reported.
The case comes in a wake of another scam reported last month, in which crooks pretended to be fraud investigators in an attempt to get their hands on victims’ personal information.
