Over HKD3m stolen by scammers
Three cases of financial scamming were reported by the Judiciary Police (PJ) in a press briefing yesterday.
In the first case, the victim was a mainland resident who lost RMB40,000 after being introduced to the suspect by a friend in May.
The suspect, named Choi, is a 27-year-old unemployed male resident who claimed that he could exchange the money to Hong Kong dollars.
The suspect told the victim that he could help exchange money with a preferential exchange rate of RMB85.9 to HKD100 while an associate in Hong Kong could help to remit the money, avoiding cross border transaction costs.
The victim believed that the suspect had transferred RMB40,000 to their account.
Later, on May 17, the suspect told the victim that the money had been transferred to the account successfully, providing a falsified image of a money transfer slip via WeChat, in which the suspect had hidden their personal information.
The next day, the victim found that no money had been transferred to their account and lost contact with the suspect.
After investigation, it was revealed that the suspect was involved in another scam case last year, and he was required to report back to the PJ.
The PJ arrested the suspect when he returned to report to the PJ on September 1.
The suspect confessed his crime and claimed that he had cheated the victim to repay a personal loan.
The PJ transferred the suspect’s case to the Public Prosecutions Office on the charge of fraud (of a large sum) on September 2.
In the second case, a female victim lost a total of HKD3,000,000.
The victim, a 50-year-old local resident, met the suspect on an online social platform in the second half of March, and entered an online relationship with the suspect in May.
The suspect persuaded the victim to invest online.
The victim opened an account and downloaded two mobile investing apps for using a virtual currency to invest.
Between early May and August 13, the victim purchased USD3,000 in virtual currency, then, as instructed by the suspect, transferred the virtual currency to another account for trading.
The suspect told the victim that, due to a transaction problem, the victim could not continue to purchase virtual currency in the two apps, and introduced the victim to another Hong Kong mobile investing app.
The suspect then convinced the victim to purchase virtual currency several times, claiming she could receive a high reward, totaling around HKD3,000,000.
The victim noticed a message on August 28 that her account would be suspended due to her account not being credited USD500,000 within ten days.
The victim realized that she had been cheated when she mentioned the situation to her friend.
In the third case, a male resident lost a total of MOP50,000.
The victim received a phone call on August 26 at 10 a.m. from the suspect, who claimed to be a staff member from WeChat and advised that some fake advertisements had been published from the victim’s account. The victim denied this but was later required to download a mobile app to chat with the suspect.
During the chat, the victim was told that they were involved in an illegal fundraising case and wanted by the police.
The victim was required to transfer MOP50,000 to an account on August 29 for funds recovery.
Five days after transferring the money, on September 3, the victim realized he had been scammed.
Staff Reporter
