A male mainlander has been cheated out of 137,600 yuan in an online investment scam, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lai Chio Hong said during a regular press briefing yesterday.
According to Lai, the mainlander, a non-resident worker in his twenties surnamed Feng, reported to the police on Tuesday that he had been defrauded out of more than 137,000 yuan in an online stock investment scam late last year. The victim told the police that he met a female netizen through an app on his smartphone in mid-October last year. The woman told the victim about an app for investing in stocks and that he could make a profit through the stocks’ daily price fluctuations.
The victim downloaded the app, opened an account and transferred a total of 137,700 yuan between January 17 and February 1. The victim tried to test whether the app was reliable by withdrawing 100 yuan from the account, which he did. Therefore as he thought that the app was trustworthy, he started to invest in stocks and his account quickly showed that he was earning good money. However, later he was unable to withdraw any money. He finally suspected that he had been cheated and reported the case to the police after he had been unable to contact the app’s purported customer service, Lai said.
The Judiciary Police (PJ) are following up on the investigation. No-one had been arrested at the time of the press conference, according to Lai.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lai Chio Hong poses during yesterday’s regular press briefing at the Public Security Police (PSP) pressroom. photo: Camy Tam
