Two local women have separately fallen for online investment fraud, losing 13.64 million patacas and HK$3.5 million respectively, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said in a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Lou, the female victim in her sixties reported to the police on Monday that a man had contacted her in April claiming that he wanted to rent her flat, after which they became virtual friends. The victim was then later persuaded by her virtual “friend” to download two applications on her phone to invest in cryptocurrency.
The victim invested 28 times on the apps between April and August. On August 23, the scammer suddenly claimed that all her cryptocurrency had been lost and requested she deposit more money, after which the purported “customer service” of the app claimed that her account had been frozen. Soon after, she lost contact with her “friend” – who she had never met in the flesh. Finally realising that she had been scammed, the victim reported the case to the police with an estimated loss of 13.64 million patacas.
In the second case, the victim in her fifties told the police that she enrolled in a purported online investment course in July. The “course instructor” claimed to be an investment manager and persuaded the victim to download several investment apps and follow his instructions to invest.
The victim believed the claim and deposited a total of HK$3.5 million into an account designated by the “course instructor” in August. Later, she found that her account had been frozen and subsequently lost contact with the “instructor”. The victim suspected that she had been cheated and reported the case to the police, Lou said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: William Chan
