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Two senior Hong Kong residents misplaced $1.3 million (HK$10 million) in separate rip-off instances involving cryptocurrencies and mainland Chinese language shares, SCMP reported on Might 4.
In a single case, a 66-year-old businesswoman was scammed through WhatsApp. The scammer posed as a cryptocurrency skilled, advising her to put money into Tether (USDT) with the promise of considerable returns.
In keeping with police investigations, the sufferer unwittingly gave her private info to the scammers after filling out a web based type. The “skilled” informed her they wanted this info to pay her income. Nevertheless, the hackers used this kind to gather confidential info from their victims.
To realize her belief, the scammers gave her HK$75,000 on the primary transaction earlier than stealing HK$4.6 million (590 Tether ) from her pockets. The funds had been stolen between January 27 and March 31.
Funding fraud
In the meantime, the opposite sufferer was a 71-year-old man who misplaced HK$5.15 million to funding fraud.
In keeping with the report, the fraudster posed as a monetary funding platform worker who satisfied him to obtain a pretend buying and selling platform and put money into the shares of mainland Chinese language corporations. The sufferer transferred the funds to 9 financial institution accounts based mostly on directions.
The individual solely found he had been scammed when he couldn’t entry the platform to withdraw his cash.
On-line fraud rising
These two instances symbolize the tip of the iceberg relating to on-line funding fraud in Hong Kong. In keeping with the Police, reported instances of this kind of fraud elevated by 92% in 2022 in comparison with the earlier yr.
Moreover, the speed of employment scams within the metropolis has elevated, with 196 individuals shedding HK$40 million (over $5 million) to the identical rip-off within the first two weeks of April.
In the meantime, the prevalence of those scams has pressured the authorities to double their efforts. Hong Kong has launched an software referred to as Scameter to assist customers decide the chance of fraud.
The publish Crypto scammers steal over $1M from 2 aged individuals in Hong Kong appeared first on CryptoSlate.
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