Police investigate 5-year-old London Gold Group accusing 6 female victims of terminal cancer of being defrauded of their medical savings

The police have been investigating a local London gold fraud syndicate since 2017. This year, the six arrested persons were finally charged with "conspiracy to defraud" and "money laundering", involving more than HK$390 million.

One of them, a 35-year-old female victim with terminal cancer, defrauded her medical savings in a short period of time.

The Commercial Crime Bureau has summarized the trend of investment fraud. In the first two months of this year, 243 cases were recorded, which doubled compared to the same period last year. The tools used by fraudsters have also changed from foreign exchange and London gold to the recently emerging virtual currency, etc. .

Fraudsters even resort to fake apps and fake customer service staff, asking victims to deposit more money before they can withdraw their principal and profits.

The police remind the public not to trust strangers they meet on online platforms, and there is no "real money" investment. It is advisable to study the product content before investing.

In addition, the public can pay attention to whether the transfer account is a personal account or a company account to identify whether the investment application is counterfeit.

The police dismantled a local London gold fraud syndicate and charged six arrested persons with "conspiracy to defraud" and "money laundering", involving more than HK$390 million.

The police launched Operation "Break Wind" in 2017 to bust a local London gold fraud syndicate.

The group used two financial companies to defraud 215 victims with a total of $111 million between 2015 and 2017.

Police conducted operations between 2018 and 2019 and arrested 66 people, including 44 men and 22 women, aged between 18 and 27 years old.

After years of in-depth investigation, wealth analysis and evidence collection, the police recently obtained the opinion of the Department of Justice and decided to prosecute six key members of the fraud syndicate, two of whom are believed to be the masterminds of the syndicate. The charges are "conspiracy to defraud" and "money laundering". ”, and the amount involved was HK$397.4 million.

The six persons appeared in the Eastern Magistrates' Courts this morning (May 5), and the case will be scheduled for trial in the High Court.

Fraudsters use fake apps to lure victims into opening accounts and defrauding money

The Commercial Crime Bureau concluded that there is an upward trend in investment deception cases. In the first two months of this year, a total of 243 cases were recorded, a significant increase of 133 cases compared with 110 cases in the same period last year; This rose to 132.2 million yuan this year.

Superintendent Ye Yonglin of the Commercial Crime Investigation Bureau said that the tools used by the scammers have also changed from the previous foreign exchange and London gold to the recently emerging virtual currency, etc., but the methods have never changed from the original, they are all using "beautiful boys and girls as pictures". Touting, showing off the wealthy lifestyle, attracting attention with beautiful cars and watches, after contacting the victims, they touted themselves as investment experts, and promoted high-return, low-risk investments. In fact, such a system does not exist.” There are also fraudsters taking advantage of The epidemic situation, high unemployment rate, etc. as opportunities, claiming to provide job opportunities, under the guise of hiring, and lobbying victims to invest in order to defraud money.

Middle school male teacher was defrauded of 300,000 yuan by female agent and persuaded the other party to study

He Jinyuan, Senior Inspector of the Fraud Investigation Team of the Commercial Crime Investigation Branch, shared two London gold investment fraud cases. A female victim of about 35 years old with terminal cancer was approached online in mid-2020 by a person who claimed to be a London gold investment. broker.

The broker flaunted a luxurious life to the victim and induced her to invest in London gold. In the process, he asked the victim to invest the money used for medical treatment in London gold, so as to make money to find better doctors and better medicines.

The victim gave all the money used for medical treatment to the broker, and even borrowed money from financial institutions to increase the investment amount.

In the end, the London Gold Broker lost all of the victim's 500,000 yuan investment in a short period of time and lost contact.

Another victim of the London gold scam was a male secondary school teacher who met online a female London gold broker who claimed to have extensive investment experience.

Brokers keep boasting about their investment experience and claiming that they can help victims make money without charging brokerage commissions.

The victim then transferred the investment amount of 300,000 yuan to the bank account provided by the broker for investment. Finally, in just one week, the broker lost all the investment amount of the victim and asked the victim to deposit more money for investment.

Aware of the deception, the victim persuaded the broker to quit his job at the London Gold Company and get back on track to train himself and become a real investment advisor.

New anti-fraud propaganda: liar Taipa, your property evaporates overnight

Senior Inspector of the Anti-Fraud Coordination Center, Lin Peiheng, predicted that from May to August this year, the police will hold a publicity campaign called "The Fraudsters Lose Your Property Overnight", with the theme of different common scams every month. , to deepen the public's awareness of fraudulent tactics.

The Coordination Center designed the latest role of scammers - "virtual app magician" who deceived victims with fake investment apps, and introduced the latest online investment scam tactics: scammers who get acquainted with victims on social media or instant messaging software will Promote some fake investment apps, claiming to master the rules of the program's trading, which can be shared with victims to help make money.

After the victim expresses interest, the scammer will provide a fake link to the victim, ask the victim to download the fake investment program, and teach the victim to contact the customer service staff of the program to arrange account opening.

The victim contacted the fraudster's fake customer service, followed the instructions to deposit funds or cryptocurrencies into a designated personal bank account or e-wallet, and then traded in the fake investment program.

At first, the scammers profited the victim and deposited the profit into the victim's bank account to gain the victim's trust.

After that, the victim increased investment, but when applying to customer service to get back the principal and profit, he was rejected by different excuses, such as system failure, tax payment, illegal operation, etc.

The customer service even instructed the victim to deposit more money before they could withdraw the principal and profit in one go.

The victim lost everything in the end.

The police reminded the public not to download the so-called "investment apps" through links from unknown sources. The real apps will only be downloaded from the official app store.

In addition, when the so-called "investment company" collects investment funds from personal bank accounts or electronic wallets, be careful, it is very likely to be a scam.

If you suspect the identity of a netizen, you may wish to ask the other party to open a video call, or use the photo of the other party's social account to search for the identity of the person using the same photo on the Internet; and do not arbitrarily sign an investment authorization to allow others to use their own money to do it for you invest.