Series of crypto investment scams reported to police
A mainland resident has been apprehended on allegations regarding a cryptocurrency investment scam amounting to HKD3 million, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday.
The 35-year-old suspect, Wang, informed police that she works as an accountant, and is one member of a couple involved in the scam.
The case was first referred to the PJ from the Public Security Police Force (PSP) on February 7.
According to the police, the victim stated that a couple claiming to have insider knowledge on cryptocurrency speculation had shown the victim their investment records, allegedly revealing profits they had gained, in order to gain the victim’s trust.
The victim was convinced and agreed to invest half a million Hong Kong dollars to purchase cryptocurrency. The investment appeared to yield profits shortly afterwards. Seeing the gains, the victim transferred an additional HKD2.5 million in cash to the couple. The couple uncontactable at this point.
Realizing this was a scam, the victim reported the case to the PSP. Both police authorities were told by the victim that the loss totaled HKD3 million.
PJ inspectors were able to identify the couple after conducting investigations and discovered that they had left Macau through the Hengqin Border Checkpoint on February 7.
On June 10, the couple attempted to enter Macau again through the Border Gate, but were intercepted and apprehended by PSP officers at the border checkpoint. They declined to cooperate with the investigations following their arrest.
The police nevertheless pressed charges against the couple, as they considered the evidence on hand sufficient.
In another case, a male victim in his 50s came across a woman on social media on May 23. He was lured into investing in cryptocurrency after conversing with her for several days. The woman claimed that she would teach him to earn easy money from the investment.
The victim downloaded an investment app, registered as a member, and deposited a total of HKD1.02 million to three bank accounts in Hong Kong across four transactions.
He earned HKD150,000 from the supposed investments after several transactions. However, he became suspicious and considered the return to be too lucrative, and requested to withdraw the money as a result.
He was told to deposit HKD1.5 million to withdraw all his funds.
He refused to do so and attempted to negotiate with a customer service agent to no avail. The negotiations were unsuccessful because the investment platform stopped working and the woman disappeared.
