An elderly woman was tricked out of HK$16 million (US$2.05 million) after giving out her bank account details in Hong Kong, losing the most among victims discovered in the latest police crackdown on scams that has led to the arrest of 21 suspects.
Culprits arrested
Police officers from Kowloon City district arrested 14 men and seven women, aged 22 to 67, during the crackdown on tech-based crimes that spanned Wednesday to Friday.
Among them were cleaners, delivery men, technicians and sales clerks.
They were involved in 18 cases of alleged fraud and money laundering, involving HK$49.8 million in losses.
Investigation reports
‘According to our investigations, the suspects were mostly stooge account holders who were used by syndicates to process their earnings,’ said Inspector Siu Yan-ting from the district’s criminal investigation department.
The victims were cheated out of their money through online investment and job hunting scams and ‘guess who I am’ phone scams, where fraudsters asked the victims to guess their identity and gained their trust by pretending to be their family members.
The 76-year-old retiree lost HK$16 million to a scammer claiming to be a mainland Chinese official, warning her that she was suspected of money laundering over the border and then asking for her bank account details.
‘She found that HK$16 million had been transferred out of her account after she gave the fraudster her online banking login and password,’ Siu said.
