According to Sou, the woman told the police that she met a man who claimed to be “the big boss of a Hong Kong company” through a social media app on May 28. “The big boss” introduced her to a gambling investment website promising easy and big profits. The woman downloaded the website’s app and signed up as a member. She remitted a total of HK$60,000 to two accounts on five occasions between June 18 and 21.
Sou said that the website later appeared to show that the balance on the woman’s account had risen to HK$700,000, comprising principal and profit. She promptly requested the website’s customer service to arrange the withdrawal of the amount.
However, the customer service told the woman that she first needed to pay a handling fee of HK$58,000 for the withdrawal. Afterwards the customer service repeatedly delayed payment for a variety of reasons so that she was unable to withdraw the money. The victim finally suspected that she had been defrauded and reported the case to the police.
Sou described the case as a typical “game of killing pigs” which evolved from online dating frauds popular in the mainland. He urged the public not to believe in the existence of stable and profitable investment platforms and websites when meeting fellow netizens on online platforms, and not to transfer money to others that they have never met in person. He urged the public to tell the police if they suspect that they are the victims of online fraud.
