A female senior citizen has fallen victim to a phone scam, in which she provided her bank account details after having been told by a purported “mainland Public Security Bureau (PSB) officer” by phone that “she was involved in a criminal case in the mainland”.
The victim reported a loss of more than HK$1.84 million.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Wai Lok said during a regular press conference yesterday that the victim received a local call on November 14, in which a man speaking Putonghua claimed that as she was involved in a criminal case in the mainland, she needed to assist the police in the investigation. The victim told the police that the call was then transferred to the “PSB officer” in Fuzhou, during which she was asked to download Skype for “questioning”.
Ho quoted the victim as saying that during the “questioning”, the officer, who mentioned her name and Home Return Permit (回鄉證) number, showed her a “detention order”, and requested she provide her bank account details including its password.
Ho said that the victim reported the case to the Judiciary Police recently, after she discovered that all of the HK$1,849,900 in her account had vanished.
At the time of the press conference, no-one suspected of involvement in the case had been arrested, according to Ho.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Wai Lok looks on during a regular press conference yesterday held at the Public Security Police (PSP) pressroom in Zape. – Photo: Yuki Lei
