A female non-resident worker told the police on Friday that she had been defrauded out of HK$345,000 in an online gambling scam earlier this month, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a regular press conference on Monday.
According to Lei, the victim, a mainlander in her thirties, told the police that she met a male netizen via a social app in early March. They later became online friends and used another app to continue their communication. The man told her early this month that he worked as a “finance manager” in a local casino VIP room and introduced her to a new online gambling game created by his company called “Beijing Car Racing” (北京賽車in Chinese), saying that there were ways to “easily win big”.
The victim and the “finance manager” never met in the flesh.
Lei said the victim registered an account on the website and transferred via online banking a total of HK$345,000 into several bank accounts according to the instructions. After gambling for a few days, her gambling account showed total winnings of 1.87 million yuan including the principal. However, on Friday the victim was unable to log into her account and lost contact with the website’s customer service as well as her “finance manager” friend.
The victim finally realised that she had been cheated and reported the loss to the police. The Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation into the case and no one had been arrested at the time of the press conference, according to Lei, who did not reveal the victim’s occupation.
