Police mentioned on-line funding scammers didn’t normally meet their victims.
“Between September 3, 2023 and March 5, 2024, the girl carried out 20 in-person transactions, amounting to HK$28 million, with one of many scammers and carried out one other 22 transactions involving HK$13 million with one other fraudster,” Leung mentioned.
Officers from the Kwun Tong district crime squad arrested a 33-year-old man on Wednesday lower than 24 hours after the girl made a grievance to police.
He was detained on suspicion of acquiring property by deception – an offence punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.
Hongkonger loses HK$7.1 million in cryptocurrency rip-off
Hongkonger loses HK$7.1 million in cryptocurrency rip-off
Leung mentioned the sufferer was coaxed into connecting her e-wallet to the pretend buying and selling platform and revealing her account password.
She added that the scammers tempted her with giant earnings as bait to lure her into investing extra money.
The businesswoman realised she had been scammed when she was unable to withdraw her cash from the buying and selling platform or contact the 2 males.
Leung mentioned the general public ought to use the pressure’s Scameter search engine, accessible by the CyberDefender web site, to examine for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.
The search engine has data to assist customers determine red-flagged net addresses, emails, platform usernames, financial institution accounts, cell phone numbers and IP addresses.
Hong Kong finance supervisor loses HK$17.8 million in gold and crypto rip-off
Hong Kong finance supervisor loses HK$17.8 million in gold and crypto rip-off
Police have recorded a significant enhance in on-line funding frauds, with 5,105 studies final yr in contrast with 1,884 in 2022.
Monetary losses additionally jumped to HK$3.26 billion in 2023, up from HK$926 million the earlier yr.
Town recorded a 42.6 per cent enhance in all kinds of deception to 39,824 studies final yr from 27,923 in 2022 – a rise of 12,531 circumstances.
The quantity misplaced went up by 89 per cent to HK$9.1 billion in 2023 from the HK$4.8 billion recorded the yr earlier than.