Entering ChinaRecently, a woman from Macao claimed to have been defrauded of 200,000 US dollars by “police, procuratorate and court” telecommunications fraud, which has drawn public attention. On March 13th, a reporter from the Macao Judicial Police Bureau (referred to as “JPB”) learned that the fraudsters had repeatedly defrauded the victim of the deposit under the pretext of “being suspected of major crimes in the mainland”, and the JPB has taken over the investigation.
The reporter noticed that such “police, procuratorate and judiciary” scams have not been new to Macao. In November 2024, a mainland woman in Macao received a call claiming that she was suspected of “money laundering in the mainland”, and was defrauded of approximately 407,000 Hong Kong dollars as “bail money”.
According to the disclosure by the Police Station, on March 11th, a woman from Macau reported a case. Her sister, who was working in the United States, was defrauded of 200,000 US dollars by a telecommunications scam. As she couldn’t return to Macau in the short term, she entrusted the woman to assist in filing the report.
The informant stated that on December 30, 2024, the victim received a call from someone claiming to be a “Federal Crime Investigator of the United States Government”, informing him that the mainland number he had set up in Xiamen was suspected of sending out a large number of fraudulent text messages in the mainland. Subsequently, the call was transferred to “the mainland public security”, and the “police bureau” personnel said that his bank account set up in Shenzhen was involved in a major case worth 2.97 million US dollars, and requested that he conduct “video case handling” through the Skype software.
The victim believed it to be true and followed the instructions to have a video call. In the video, a “police officer” in police uniform showed her “arrest warrant” and other documents, claiming that she could be released on bail but that she needed to pay a $100,000 deposit. At the same time, she was required to keep it confidential and report her daily whereabouts.
From January 9th to February 3rd, 2025, the victim transferred 100,000 US dollars to the other party through accounts in the United States and Hong Kong. On February 26th, this “police officer” contacted the victim again, claiming that due to the escape of other involved persons who had abandoned bail, another 100,000 US dollars as a guarantee was required. The victim made another transfer. On March 1st, this “police officer” called again and said that the investigation had been completed, but another 100,000 US dollars needed to be paid. He also claimed that after the procedures were completed, the guarantee money would be fully refunded. At this point, the victim suspected that they had been defrauded and entrusted his relative in Macau to report the case to the police, claiming that they had lost 200,000 US dollars in this case. The police station stated that they had taken over the investigation of this case and no one had been arrested yet.
The reporter from Nan Du News Agency noticed that such “police, procuratorate and judiciary” scams have not occurred for the first time in Macao. In November 2024, a mainland woman in Macao received a call claiming that she was involved in a case of money laundering in the mainland and needed to pay a “bail bond”. The woman believed it and transferred about 247,000 Hong Kong dollars to the other party multiple times, and purchased point cards, MPay transfers, etc., amounting to approximately 160,000 Hong Kong dollars. It was not until March 8 this year that the woman realized she was trapped in the scam and reported it to the police station, claiming a loss of about 407,000 Hong Kong dollars. The police took over and followed up on the investigation of this case.
