A male university student studying in Australia has been defrauded out of HK$819,000 in a phone scam by fraudsters who claimed to be Chinese mainland police, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said in a press conference on Monday.
The victim told the police that he received a call from the “Australia Telecommunications Company” in early October claiming that his phone number registered in Australia had been used to commit fraudulent activities including money laundering.
The call was then transferred to a man claiming to be a police officer from Beijing, who further accused the victim of being involved in cross-border money laundering activities and requested a review of his financial situation. Subsequently, a “prosecutor” contacted the victim and informed him that in order to continue studying in Australia and avoid extradition to the mainland, he must transfer a certain amount of money as a form of “bail pending trial”.
The victim then transferred different amounts of money to a designated bank account, totalling HK$819,000 in October. The victim later mentioned the incident to family members, who alerted him to the possibility of it being a scam. He returned to Macau and reported the case to the police on Sunday.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai looks on during Monday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters. – Photo: William Chan
