About 400 disabled people from the mainland and Hong Kong have been cheated out of about RMB 2.7 million (MOP 3.2 million), the Judiciary Police (PJ) said over the weekend.
According to a PJ statement on Saturday, seven disabled people, one from Hong Kong and six from the mainland, asked the local police for help on Saturday, as they had been cheated by a mainland woman. According to the statement, the seven are deaf and mute.
A PJ spokesperson said on Sunday that the police have still to make any arrests in the case.
One of the six disabled people from the mainland told the police that a friend of his introduced him to the female suspect in February. The statement said the suspect had told the man that she was a high-ranking official of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM).
The suspect also told the man that IPIM had set up a special investment plan for the disabled, and that they would enjoy a yield of up to 300 percent, according to the statement.
The victim later told a number of disabled friends about the purported IPIM investment plan, the statement said, adding about 400 disabled people had given money to the woman to join the plan.
The statement merely referred to the victims as “disabled” people, except for the seven complainants who were identified as all being deaf and mute.
The suspect told the man last month that IPIM would hold a talk for disabled people on Saturday and invited the victims to participate. However, when the man and about 20 of his disabled friends went to the IPIM headquarters in Nape, they found that the office was closed, the statement said, adding that neither could the victims contact the suspect.
Realising they had been cheated, the man and six of the other victims asked the police for help, the statement said.
According to the PJ statement, the police are still investigating the scam. IPIM said in a separate statement on Saturday that none of the services it provides involves investments with returns.
(Macau News/The Macau Post Daily)
