Two senior Hong Kong residents misplaced $1.3 million (HK$10 million) in separate rip-off instances involving cryptocurrencies and mainland Chinese language shares, SCMP reported on Might 4.
In a single case, a 66-year-old businesswoman was scammed through WhatsApp. The scammer posed as a cryptocurrency professional, advising her to put money into Tether (USDT) with the promise of considerable returns.
Based on police investigations, the sufferer unwittingly gave her private info to the scammers after filling out an internet type. The “professional” advised her they wanted this info to pay her income. Nevertheless, the hackers used this manner to gather confidential info from their victims.
To realize her belief, the scammers gave her HK$75,000 on the primary transaction earlier than stealing HK$4.6 million (590 Tether ) from her pockets. The funds have been stolen between January 27 and March 31.
Funding fraud
In the meantime, the opposite sufferer was a 71-year-old man who misplaced HK$5.15 million to funding fraud.
Based on the report, the fraudster posed as a monetary funding platform worker who satisfied him to obtain a faux buying and selling platform and put money into the shares of mainland Chinese language firms. The sufferer transferred the funds to 9 financial institution accounts primarily based on directions.
The particular person solely found he had been scammed when he couldn’t entry the platform to withdraw his cash.
On-line fraud rising
These two instances symbolize the tip of the iceberg concerning on-line funding fraud in Hong Kong. Based on the Police, reported instances of such a fraud elevated by 92% in 2022 in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
Moreover, the speed of employment scams within the metropolis has elevated, with 196 folks dropping HK$40 million (over $5 million) to the identical rip-off within the first two weeks of April.
In the meantime, the prevalence of those scams has pressured the authorities to double their efforts. Hong Kong has launched an utility referred to as Scameter to assist customers decide the chance of fraud.
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