Woman loses 100k in investment scam

A female victim reported to the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Feb. 24 that she had lost 100,000 Chinese yuan in an alleged investment trap, the police recently disclosed.

According to the disclosed part of her testimony provided to the police, on Feb. 2, she came across a man on a chat app. The man lured the woman into making investments by telling her that he had a formula. He claimed that, provided the woman followed the formula, her investments would yield guaranteed profits.

Believing the man, on Feb. 21, the woman downloaded a cell phone app for securities investments – as instructed by the man – and started her investment journey. On this night, she transferred the sum of 100,000 yuan from her mainland bank account to the app’s operator.

The man then taught her how to buy and sell securities using the app. The app showed that her investments had yielded a profit of 70,000 yuan. When she wanted to quit and withdraw the money, she was met with an error message.

Contacting the so-called customer service section, she was told that her money could only be withdrawn at a later date due to technical issues. She then made several additional attempts but still could not withdraw her money.

She tried to contact the customer service section again but her requests went unanswered, and the man could not be reached. The app was also suspended.

Only then did she suspected she had been scammed. She reached out to the police and requested the suspects be held accountable for her loss. AL