Burst
Written by: Lu Jiayu, Chen Kangzhi, Yu Ruijing
2020-11-26 22:11
Last update date: 2020-11-26 23:52
The police smashed a Blessing Party criminal gang, involved in at least 10 blessing scams in Hong Kong in half a year. The victims lost more than 1 million in total, and 3 men and 5 women were arrested, of which 5 were illegal immigrants.
The police alleged that the scammers first obtained the victim's background, and then confided in the party that the victim or his family would be facing catastrophe, claiming to know the genius doctor to alleviate the disaster and induce the victim to surrender the property or pray for blessing.
The police smashed a Blessing Party criminal gang involving at least 8 blessing scams in Hong Kong.
(Photo by Yu Ruijing)
Tai Po Police District Assistant Commander (Criminal) Chong Cheng Yi said that the police conducted intelligence collection and analysis by the Commercial Crime Investigation Division in response to street deceptions. At 5 o'clock in the morning yesterday (25th), together with officers from the Criminal Division of the Tai Po Police District, Sudden searches of target units located in Tung Choi Street and Tung Hui Village, Wong Tai Sin, Mong Kok, arrested two men and two women who were illegal immigrants aged 36 to 64 in Mong Kok. They are believed to have stayed in Hong Kong for nearly 6 months. In addition, they were arrested in Wong Tai Sin. One man and three women aged 21 to 48, one of whom is a 48-year-old woman is also an illegal immigrant.
The police seized 30,000 yuan in cash, 6,000 yuan and a small amount of gold jewelry.
Zhuang Chengyi pointed out that at this stage, the arrested person is confirmed to be related to a street deception case involving about 50,000 yuan at Tai Wai Road in Sha Tin in June this year and a street deception involving about 200,000 yuan at Longyue Tau on Sha Tau Kok Highway in Sheung Shui in July.
The two victims were 71 and 47 years old and were walking alone through the sitting-out area at the time of the incident.
The scammer will first send a colleague to ask a single person for directions to get the victim's background, and then another colleague falsely claims that the victim or his family will be seriously ill or doomed, and claim to know a genius doctor to induce the victim to hand over the property Practice or pray for blessings, and then use the technique of "Stealing the Dragon and Turning the Phoenix" to replace the property with garbage, and the victim can open the plastic bag to retrieve the item a few days later.
When the victim finds out that he has been deceived, the scammer has escaped, and the victim loses money and only exchanges for water bottles and clothes.
Zhuang Chengyi hopes that citizens will increase their awareness of crime prevention, care about their family members, especially the elderly, and remind the criminals of fraudsters, so as not to disclose the status of family members or information to strangers.
According to the police, five illegal immigrants and a mainland woman holding documents were arrested on suspicion of "acquiring property by deception". Among them, five illegal immigrants were also suspected of "unauthorized entry in Hong Kong." "Stay" was detained for investigation.
As for the other two local men and women and Mainland women holding permits, they were arrested and detained for "assisting and abetting others to enter illegally".
Involved 8 cases, uh, more than 1 million
Senior Inspector Feng Bojian of the First Team of the Tai Po Police District Crime Squad stated that there are reasons to believe that the crimes committed by the persons involved are all over Hong Kong, with a total of at least 10 cases. With a total value of more than 1 million, Feng Zhi will continue to contact other teams that are investigating similar cases for intelligence exchange and contact victims for identification.
Feng Bojian said that obtaining property by illegal means can be sentenced to up to 10 years’ imprisonment once convicted. In addition, providing support or assistance with illegal immigrants entering or staying in Hong Kong may commit an offence in arranging unauthorized entry to Hong Kong. Each can be sentenced to a maximum of 14 years in jail, or to assist those who are not authorized to enter the country to stay. The maximum conviction can also be sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Liu Zhaolong, Senior Inspector of the Intelligence Unit of the Commercial Crime Investigation Bureau, pointed out that there have been 30 street scams so far this year, of which 29 were blessed party cases. The total value of lost property exceeded 6.8 million. The loss in a single case ranged from 9,500 yuan to a maximum of 2 million , The victims are all female, aged 47 to 80 years.
Liu Zhaolong alleged that the swindlers came to Hong Kong to commit crimes mainly from the Mainland, and they were all natives of Guangdong Province, so they could communicate with victims in fluent Cantonese.
Liu pointed out that if citizens are in doubt, they should leave the police as soon as possible. They can also call the 24-hour hotline 18222 of the Police Anti-Fraud Coordination Center for enquiries.
Fraud
