Woman loses over HKD730,000 after falling for ‘police’ scam

A young local woman is suspected of having fallen victim to a phone scam impersonating a police officer from Wuhan, who accused her of spreading a large number of false advertisements in mainland China, resulting in a loss of HKD738,240.

According to the report, the female victim stated that on January 15, she received a call from someone claiming to be a “Wuhan police officer.”

The caller accused her of being involved in disseminating false advertisements in mainland China since June of last year, and said her cooperation in an investigation was required.

She accurately recited her personal details, and the call was then transferred to a “prosecutor,” who requested a FaceTime video call. Using the pretext of her involvement in a major fraud case and restrictions on her travel, the scammer persuaded her to enable screen-sharing mode on her phone to apply for a “priority investigation.”

Believing the ruse, the victim followed the instructions and accessed a designated website, where she entered her identity and bank account details, then submitted the SMS verification code from her bank. After completing these steps, the scammer informed her that they would follow up later and demanded that she keep the matter confidential.

Sensing something was wrong, the victim later tried to log into her online banking but found she could no longer access her account.

After contacting her bank, she discovered that the funds in her account had been transferred in eight separate transactions to eight different bank accounts in Hong Kong by an unknown individual, resulting in a total loss of HKD738,240. Ricaela Diputado