Inspector Leon Man-Yee said Thursday that the scammers orchestrated direct transactions to lower their guard and trick victims into cooperating with the scam. Police said online investment scammers usually do not meet their victims.
The 56-year-old woman became a victim after replying to an online message sent by a scammer who persuaded her to open an account on a fake trading platform to invest in cryptocurrencies.
She made 44 face-to-face transactions with two scammers, but later realized she had been scammed when she was unable to withdraw money from the platform and was unable to contact the two men. Noticed. She decided to call the police on Tuesday.
Police advised the public to use the force’s Scameter search engine or mobile app to check for suspicious or fraudulent plans.
The app was upgraded in February to display automatic pop-up reminders on users’ mobile devices when they receive a call from a suspicious number or visit a suspicious website.
Search engines and mobile apps are designed to help the public identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts, mobile phone numbers, and IP addresses.
Hong Kong police warn that WhatsApp scams that deceived 130 people in one week are on the rise
Hong Kong police warn that WhatsApp scams that deceived 130 people in one week are on the rise
The number of fraud cases last year increased by 42.6% to 39,824 from 27,923 in 2022. Losses for 2023 increased by 89% to HK$9.1 billion from HK$4.8 billion the previous year.
Reports of online technology crimes accounted for 85% of all fraud incidents last year. Such crimes include online investment fraud, romance fraud, email fraud, e-shopping fraud, employment fraud, and more.
The number of online investment fraud cases increased to 5,105 last year, compared to 1,884 in 2022. Economic losses also surged to HK$3.26 billion in 2023 from HK$926 million the previous year.
Police handled 8,950 online shopping fraud cases last year, an increase of 2.5% from 8,735 cases in 2022. However, the loss increased by 157% to HK$190.5 million from HK$74.1 million a year earlier.
