The police said that they had received two reports from two men in the United States and Singapore earlier, involving an online romance scam and a fake public security scam, with an amount of HK$22 million and HK$13 million, respectively.
Kwai Tsing Police District Technology Crime Squad took over the investigation and after in-depth investigation, three local women (aged 21 to 45) were arrested in Southern District, Kwai Tsing District and Kwun Tong District for two consecutive days on the 21st and 22nd of this month.
The arrested person was charged with "dealing with property known or believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable crime" (commonly known as money laundering). Police officers also seized mobile phones and bank ATM cards as evidence.
During the operation, the police also froze his bank accounts for a total of about $6.3 million.
The arrested woman has been released on bail pending further investigation.
The case is still under investigation and police cannot rule out more arrests.
The victim of the first case was an American lawyer who met an oriental woman through a dating website in November 2020, and the two developed into an online couple. The woman induced the male victim to make high-dollar transactions on two foreign exchange platforms. For investment, the victim has successively remitted more than US$2.6 million (HKD 22 million in the intervening contract) into the investment accounts of 8 designated Hong Kong banks.
Later, the victim found out that her investment account was suspended and the woman lost contact, only then did she know she had been deceived and reported the case for help.
After investigation by the police, it was found that the account holder was held by a 30-year-old waitress surnamed Jian. The police arrested her on Monday (21st).
Another victim was a Singaporean businessman who received a local call in September 2020 claiming to be an official of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, claiming that he was involved in a money laundering case, and then forwarded the call to a self-proclaimed Beijing police officer. Bureau officials, who demanded the victim pay a bond and investigation costs in exchange for terminating their case.
After the period, the victim was instructed to deposit a total of HK$13 million into the account indicated by the suspect three times. Later, the victim felt cheated and his wife reported the case in Hong Kong.
After investigation by the police, they found two account holders, a 21-year-old female clerk surnamed Ou and a 45-year-old female surnamed Mo Qingqing, who were arrested the day before yesterday.
The police appeal to the public to be more vigilant, especially when it involves the solicitation of money and sensitive personal information.
If members of the public have doubts, they can call the Police Anti-Fraud Coordination Centre's "Anti-Fraud Easy" 24-hour hotline 18222 for enquiries.
The Police reiterate that "dealing with property known or believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offence" (commonly known as money laundering) is a serious crime. Dealing with property, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, for the proceeds of crime, on grounds of believing, is the offence of "dealing with property known or believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offence", which, upon conviction, may be punishable by up to Sentenced to a $5 million fine and 14 years in prison.
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