A local man was defrauded out of HK$1.02 million in an online investment scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a regular press conference on Monday.
According to Leng, the victim, who is in his fifties, reported to the Judiciary Police recently that he had been cheated out of HK$1 million in an online investment scam. He told the police that he got to know a female netizen on May 23, Leng said, adding that the woman later persuaded the victim to invest in cryptocurrency on an app, and she claimed that he could earn easy money.
Leng said that on the woman’s instruction the victim transferred cash totalling HK$1.02 million in four remittances from June 6 to June 10 to three Hong Kong bank accounts purporting to belong to the investment app. Once the money had been transferred the app showed that the victim had made a profit of HK$150,000. According to Leng, the victim grew suspicious about how easily the money was made and asked to make a withdrawal, but the “customer service staff” told him that another HK$1.5 million needed to be paid as “handling charge”. The victim finally realised that he had been duped and reported the case to the police.
