48 citizens fell into the "low-interest loan" scam by mistake. They made deposits to the bank accounts designated by the scammers for many times to increase the loan amount and obtain more favorable interest rates. Unexpectedly, the scammers lost contact after they succeeded.
After investigation, the police launched an operation from May 3 to May 5, arresting 6 men and 1 woman on charges of "obtaining property by deception", involving about 2.8 million yuan.
The police found that the arrested 7 all used their own bank accounts to collect the victim's money and dealt with them, and 5 of them were only 20 to 23 years old, and only sold their bank accounts for 3,000 to 5,000 yuan.
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Chief Inspector Mo Ziwei of the East Kowloon Crime Squad explained the case that between March 2020 and September 2021, 48 victims received calls from scammers at different places and at different times, falsely claiming that they could provide low-interest loans , but the victim could not borrow the money in the end, but lost his hard-earned money.
The 48 cases are distributed across the territory, including 15 in East Kowloon, 9 in West Kowloon, 7 in New Territories North, 8 in New Territories South and 9 in Hong Kong Island.
The 48 victims were 28 males and 20 females, ranging in age from 22 to 71, including students, housewives, company proprietors and decoration workers, etc., with a total loss of 2.8 million, with a single loss ranging from 5,000 to 432,000 yuan .
Kowloon East Regional Crime Division joined forces with Wong Tai Sin, Tseung Kwan O, Kwun Tong and Sau Mau Ping Police Districts to conduct "Operation Concurrent Operation". From May 3 to May 5, arrests were made for the crime of "obtaining property by deception" 6 men and 1 woman, aged between 20 and 38, 6 of whom have criminal records.
The police investigation found that the seven arrested persons used their own bank accounts to collect the victim's money and deal with it. The amount handled by each arrested person ranged from 47,000 to 1.26 million.
Five of the seven arrested, aged between 20 and 23, sold their bank accounts for $3,000 to $5,000.
Kowloon East Regional Crime Division joined forces with Wong Tai Sin, Tseung Kwan O, Kwun Tong and Sau Mau Ping Police Districts to conduct "Operation Concurrent Operation". From May 3 to May 5, arrests were made for the crime of "obtaining property by deception" 6 males and 1 female.
(Photo by Weng Yuhui)
Mo Ziwei pointed out that the number of crime cases in Hong Kong in the first quarter of this year was 14,779, of which deception cases accounted for 40%, or about 5,378 cases.
The number of scams increased by 28.6% compared to the same period last year.
Mo described that the low-interest loans used by fraudsters are mostly propaganda tactics, and will later turn into investment scams, requiring the victim to use advance money as a repayment guarantee to defraud the victim of money.
Mo pointed out that in the 48 cases, a 48-year-old victim received a call from a scammer in December 2020, claiming that if he borrowed 200,000 yuan, he would only need to repay a few thousand yuan per month.
The victim was not afraid of fraud, and deposited 70,000 yuan into a designated account as an advance.
Later, the swindler claimed that if he deposited 100,000 yuan as an advance, he would give away tablet computers and smart phones.
The victim deposited a total of 130,000 yuan before and after, but ultimately borrowed less than a cent.
A 69-year-old male proprietor of an electronic parts company wanted to take out a loan of 1 million yuan due to the company's turnover problem, and deposited more than 400,000 yuan into the fraudster's investment account 8 times; another 22-year-old victim received it in March 2020. The scammer called and borrowed 400,000 yuan from 30 finance companies in the following year, with the purpose of depositing it into an investment account to borrow more money.
Senior Inspector Liu Qiyan pointed out that the police have noticed the recent low-interest loan fraud cases. The fraudsters mainly contact the victims in the form of cold calls, falsely claiming to be employees of banks or financial institutions. During the conversation, a card with the company name printed on it will be sent to the victim. Defrauded the victim's trust, and then claimed to provide low-interest loans with a monthly interest rate as low as 0.18%.
When the victim is interested, the scammer will ask the victim to open an investment account and download the software of the online trading platform, and ask for a deposit to a designated account as proof of assets. When the low-interest loan is approved, the deposit will be returned.
The scammers also require the victims to provide personal information, such as copies of ID cards, income certificates, tax bills, etc. During this period, they continue to ask the victims to deposit into designated accounts to increase the loan amount and obtain more favorable interest rates.
When the scammers succeed, they will lose contact, and the victims usually only know that they have been deceived when they take the initiative to check the loan progress with the bank or discuss with their family members.
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