After a swindler posing as a victim offered to help her recover HK$ 5, 000 ( RM2, 789 ) she lost earlier in an online shopping scam, a Hong Kong woman was duped out of an additional HK$ 2 million ( RM1.12mil or US$ 257, 824 ), according to police.
The victim was told by the police that she had to pay a loan for its services on April 28 when the conman claimed to know a “team” that may help restore lost funds from scams.
After a Telegram user claimed he had also been defrauded, the 37-year-old person was later duped into the recovery scheme.
Police claimed that the victim “pretended to be another target” and made up the falsehood that a group behind such schemes had properly recovered the deficits on their CyberDefender Facebook page.
The fraudster then gave the woman the instructions to give the loan in order to use those services.
According to police, the target” transferred funds to the scammer 13 times in a week, totaling almost HK$$ 2 million,” according to the police.
She realized she had been scammed once more after talking with friends about the situation and reported the case to the police last month.
Authorities issued a public safety warning about healing schemes last year, noting that fraudsters frequently target victims who have already been victims.
The army highlighted a growing trend of phony websites and businesses falsely claiming to recover lost funds under the pretense of being private researchers or legal service providers in June of last year. These organizations generally promoted online and sought to further elude victim abuse.
The organization claimed that swindlers frequently preyed on subjects ‘ “urgent need to recover lost cash,”” claiming they can use attorneys or even police officials to assist in retrieving funds,” which set off a” second scam.”
Police urged the public to be diligent about anyone or any organization that claims to be able to retrieve lost funds, as victims may end up being conned once more.
” Police will never ask patients to provide them with online banking passwords or instructions for income transfers.” Call the” Anti-Scam Helpline 18222″ for verification if someone claims to be a police officer but you are unsure of their identity, the force said.
People should carefully check their backgrounds, credentials, and trust before turning to professionals for assistance, it added.
According to official statistics, Hong Kong residents lost total money last year in the amount of$ 356 million ( RM198.64 million ). This is an increase of 87 % over the previous year.
Officers handled 11, 559 online shopping fraud cases in 2024, marking a 29.2 % increase from 8, 950 cases in 2023. In response, monetary losses increased from HK$$ 191mil to RM$ 106.57mil.
Officials urged the use of the” Scameter” search engine by the police to check suspicious websites, emails, passwords, bank accounts, mobile numbers, and IP addresses to help the public detect fraudulent schemes.
37 % of all crimes connected to technology occurred in the year due to reports of online shopping fraud. In 2024, police handled 33, 903 technology-related crime cases, resulting in financial losses totalling HK$ 5.129bil ( RM2.86bil ). South China Morning Post,