“Beware of being cheated” seems to have become a part of daily life, no matter the level of education, industry, or gender, there is a chance to be tricked! A 44-year-old female architect met a “professional” who claimed to be from Taiwan on WhatsApp in June last year. She was then lured to invest in cryptocurrency on a fake website, and remitted a total of regarding 24.52 million Hong Kong dollars to the designated bank account in 65 times. . She later tried to get back the proceeds but found out she had been cheated and called the police for help. The police recently conducted an operation code-named “Xiaoguang” and arrested 24 men and 9 women for crimes such as “obtaining property by deception”, “fraud” and “money laundering”. They were involved in 33 cases and defrauded nearly HK$32 million.
Another citizen was involved in a cryptocurrency investment scam. It is reported that a female architect met an architect who claimed to be from Taiwan on WhatsApp in June last year, and also claimed to be an investment expert. The female architect was then lured to a fake website to invest in TEDA cryptocurrency, and according to the website’s customer service instructions, from June last year to January this year, a total of regarding 24.52 million Hong Kong dollars was remitted to the designated bank account in 65 times .
The female architect later wanted to get back the proceeds, but the other party demanded to pay administrative fees. When she did not comply, the other party lost contact and the false website no longer operated. The female architect knew she had been deceived and called the police for help.
Recently, a woman lost money following being lobbied to invest in TEDA and reported to the police. A 30-year-old woman met a male netizen on the social platform “Bumble” earlier, and the other party persuaded her to invest in Tether on the online virtual currency platform. , transferred a total of regarding 690,000 yuan to the other party’s four designated e-wallets four times, but she was unable to get back the cash and the other party lost contact.
Fraud involves investment, job hunting, online dating, and online shopping
In addition, the police recently conducted an operation code-named “Xiaoguang” from March 22 to April 11 in response to technology crimes and fraud cases. Male and 9 females, aged between 19 and 64. The arrested persons were involved in a total of 33 cases, including investment, job hunting, online dating and online shopping scams, defrauding a total of HK$31.62 million. The police also seized mobile phones, bank documents, bank cards and other items for further analysis and investigation.
Police Inspector Tang Chi-shing of the Kwun Tong Police District Criminal Department said yesterday that the case uncovered this time involved 52 victims, 24 men and 28 women, aged between 19 and 67. Among them, the case with the largest amount of money being defrauded was an online dating scam , The middle-aged woman involved in the case was defrauded of 8 million yuan.
Most of those arrested are puppet account holders, and some of them have triad backgrounds. According to police investigations, some of the arrested persons provided their bank accounts to the fraudulent syndicate in exchange for hundreds of dollars in remuneration. The syndicate will then use the relevant account to collect fraudulent funds and money laundering.
Warning once morest lending or selling bank accounts
Deng Zhicheng reminded the public not to lend or sell bank accounts, phone cards and online payment tools, so as not to be used by criminals for money laundering. Those who lend their accounts may commit money laundering offenses under the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, and the maximum penalty is a fine of $5 million and imprisonment for 14 years.
He also reminded not to answer calls from unknown sources or click on suspicious Internet links, so as not to become a victim of scams. Members of the public should immediately report to the police or call the “Anti-Scam Hotline” at 18222 in case of suspected fraud.
Originally published on AM730 https://www.am730.com.hk/Local/Cheaters are hard to prevent – tricked into investing in virtual currency and got caught – female architect lost nearly 25 million / 371052?utm_source=yahoorss&utm_medium=referral
