A local teenager lost HK$6.85 million in a “fake police” scam in August last year, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said yesterday, adding that PJ officers arrested a mainland woman on Monday for assisting a telecom fraud gang in opening a bank account in Hong Kong, which had received HK$1.65 million of the victim’s money.
The Judiciary Police, according to Ho, received a report from the male victim on September 5 last year about his loss of HK$6.85 million in a fake police scam, saying that he had received a purported call from the “Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau” which claimed that his registered mainland phone number had sent out a large number of illegal gambling text messages, involving a major gambling fraud case.
The victim told the Judiciary Police that the phone was then transferred as a video call to two people claiming to be “Police Officer Chen” and “Prosecutor Yang” who showed the victim a wanted notice with his personal information, an arrest warrant, and other “legal documents”.
Ho quoted the victim as saying that as instructed by “Police Officer Chen”, who was wearing what looked like a police uniform and appeared to be standing in an office of Shanghai’s “Public Security Bureau”, he turned on the sharing-screen function on the video chat, logged into a link provided by “Police Officer Chen”, and entered his online banking details, including the bank account’s login and transaction passwords, for “checking his funds”.
The victim reported the case to the Judiciary Police after he was notified by bank staff that HK$6.85 million had been transferred from his account to three Hong Kong bank accounts.
A PJ investigation showed that a sum of HK$1.65 million was transferred to one of the bank accounts in Hong Kong held in the name of the 40-year-old female suspect surnamed Tong, Chan said, adding that PJ officers arrested her in the early hours of Monday when she entered Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
Under questioning, Tong confessed that she was asked by a man, whom she had met at a party in the mainland, to open a bank account in Hong Kong, adding that the man had promised her 20 percent of the money credited to her bank account as a “commission”, after handing over the bank account’s details and cash withdrawals to him.
The suspect insisted that she had not yet received any commission from the man, Ho said, noting that according to the PJ investigation, the suspect was instructed by the man to open a number of bank accounts in Hong Kong and hand the details over to him.
Ho noted that the suspect was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday for further investigation, where she faces charges of organised crime, fraud involving a considerably larger amount of money, and money laundering.
The hooded female fraud and money-laundering suspect from the mainland is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle after yesterday morning’s special press conference. – Photo: Yuki Lei
