The 46-year-old Hong Kong housewife lost HK$7.1 million ($908,000). Reason? She invested in a scam.
A scam that will deprive you of almost a million USD
As reported by the South China Morning Post, the 46-year-old woman only realized after a year that she had been deceived. How is this possible?
Let's start from the beginning. One of the scammers contacted the victim via Instagram. It took place in July 2022. The criminal started persuading the woman to invest in cryptocurrencies. He sent a link to a false, as it later turned out, investment platform. He cooperated with another fraudster who impersonated a service representative of this alleged company. The two persuaded the victim to transfer over $900,000 to 15 bank accounts between August 19, 2022 and March 4, 2023. Objective? Alleged investment in cryptocurrencies.
As you can guess, it ended with a loss, not a profit.
The media report that the victim became suspicious about the program only when, after a year, she learned that she could not withdraw her funds from the platform or contact the fraudsters who persuaded her to invest.
The woman reported everything to the local police. The investigation is ongoing.
Although no arrests were made, the police classified the case as “obtaining property by fraud”, which is punishable by up to ten years in prison.
More and more scams!
Hong Kong police have revealed that there has been a significant increase in cryptocurrency investment scams due to the growing adoption of digital assets in its territory. Last year, financial losses from cryptocurrency investment scams increased by 42.6% to HK$3.26 billion from HK$926 million in 2022. The number of reports also increased, to 5,105 in 2023 from 1,884 the year before.
How not to fall for criminals? Just check each investment project carefully. It is also not worth believing in “miracle” investments that allow you to passively and reliably earn huge amounts of money.
