Hong Kong Woman Loses Her Savings in Crypto Scam (Report)
A 55-year-old Hong Kong resident has reportedly fallen victim to a cryptocurrency investment scam and lost his entire life savings worth nearly HKD 7 million (nearly $900,000).
Such fraud cases have become quite frequent in the region recently. A study estimated that Hong Kong investors had lost around $50 million during the first half of 2022 due to crypto schemes.
“Obtaining property by deception”
According to a South China Morning Post coverage, the woman became a victim when a criminal contacted her on Instagram in January this year. The investigation said they later started chatting on another messaging application.
After gaining her trust, the fraudster advised her to create an account on an unknown platform to invest in cryptocurrencies with the promise of good returns. Law enforcement agents outlined that the information shared on the venue regarding the prices of digital assets was forged and controlled by the offender.
“She was told she would get daily interest of HK$2,500 in addition to a guaranteed profit of tens of thousands of US dollars,” police said.
The criminal lured the victim into transferring HK$6.96 million ($886,600) between February and the end of March to 19 specified bank accounts.
When the woman tried to withdraw some of her funds, she was asked to pay a fee. She even tried to borrow money from her daughter before realizing she had been scammed.
The Hong Kong pensioner sought help from the police, who classified the case as “obtaining property by deception:” a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison. However, authorities have yet to arrest any suspects.
This is not the only example of a major crypto scam in Hong Kong this week. A 44-year-old woman called police a few days ago, claiming she parted with $3.1 million after investing in stablecoin Tether (USDT) on a dubious platform.
Crypto schemes on the rise in Hong Kong
Data from 2022 showed that there had been more than 10,000 cyber attacks in Hong Kong between the beginning of January last year and the end of June. 798 of them were crypto-related schemes such as drained around 50 million dollars from investors. In comparison, such crime accounted for 21 million dollars in losses in the first half of 2021.
The police recently announced that the total number of crypto scams in China’s Special Administrative Region has increased to 2,336 by the end of 2022 (67% more than the 2021 incidents). Law enforcement agents handled 1,884 of the cases.
