The police found that there was a significant upward trend in technology crimes and "quick money" crimes during the epidemic. After investigation and case analysis, Wan Chai Police District took large-scale arrests for 6 consecutive days (April 29 to May 4) for suspected fraud. A total of 41 people were arrested on charges of obtaining property by means of means, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and theft, including 5 key members of the "Bump Ticket Party" and 36 puppet account holders.
During the operation, the police detected 31 similar cases, involving a total loss of more than 132 million yuan. The largest loss involved an environmental technology company, which lost as much as 103 million yuan due to an email scam.
Wan Chai Police District Chief Criminal Inspector Ho Siu-tung said at a press conference this evening (May 5) that the police noticed that during the raging epidemic in the past one or two years, some fraudsters took advantage of the opportunity for citizens to stay at home for online shopping or work from home. Significant use of online platforms to commit technology crimes, including the use of fast payment tools or online trading platforms to defraud funds, and even phishing emails to induce large companies to deposit funds into some puppet accounts, etc., have seen a clear upward trend in similar cases.
After analyzing the trend of the cases, the Wan Chai Police District launched an arrest operation code-named "Chong Xiao" for the past 6 consecutive days (April 29 to May 4) against the impeachment party criminal gang and some puppet account holders. To combat technology crime and fast money crime.
During this period, the police arrested a total of 41 persons in various locations in Hong Kong on suspicion of obtaining property by deception, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and theft.
The 41 people arrested include 28 men and 13 women, aged between 19 and 69. Among them, 36 are believed to be puppet account holders, and the other 5 are key members of the "Bump Ticket Party".
Among those arrested, three were Filipino domestic helpers who provided their accounts for money laundering purposes.
The police detected 31 similar cases in this operation, and the victims lost a total of more than $132 million.
Lu Weide, head of the second team of the Wan Chai Police District Serious Crime Unit, continued that the 36 arrested puppet account holders were suspected of using personal bank accounts or payment tools to deal with the stolen money in the case.
Among the 36 arrested persons, 20 were involved in receiving illicit money from online shopping scams. Other deceptive methods include investment scams, online romance scams and email scams.
Some of the arrested persons claimed to have lent or even sold their bank accounts to others, not knowing that they would be held criminally responsible.
In the technology crime and fast money cases involved this time, the amount of loss at least ranges from more than 100 or more than 1,000 yuan, but there are also international email fraud cases involving losses of more than 100 million yuan. The highest loss is a traditional email fraud case. , the victim is an environmental protection technology company not in Hong Kong. The company received an email from a customer who had been doing business with them all the time. The email was suspected to have been hacked by scammers and instructed the victim environmental protection technology company to change the account that had been in the past and transfer the funds instead. Deposit into another designated account.
The victimized environmental protection technology company was not afraid of fraud, and the resulting loss was as high as 103 million yuan; the police successfully intercepted the victim's loss of about 14 million yuan.
Impeachment party online shopping scams on the rise
Apart from puppet accounts, the police have noticed an upward trend in online shopping scams involving impeachment parties since last year.
Wan Chai Police District recorded a total of 9 cases of the same type from October to December last year, a marked increase from the total of 7 cases from January to September last year.
These members of the impeachment party will disguise themselves as buyers and bury their hands in some large online trading platforms or social networking sites to some less experienced or small-scale sellers, mainly targeting expensive watches and handbags that are easier to resell in the market. Most of the scammers will not negotiate with the sellers to attract victims who are eager to cash out; they will also meet the victims to settle in the subway station, and use some blind spots with less CCTV coverage to evade the police.
Fraudsters will also ask the victim for the bank account number in advance, ask the victim to check the online banking account entry records during settlement, and even produce forged receipts or entry records.
When the victim sees the relevant records, or the account balance in his bank account shows the amount of money, he believes it to be true and hands the goods to the fraudsters.
It was only a few days after the victim handed over the goods that the ammo was discovered. At that time, the thief had fled.
In the case, the Wan Chai Police District's Criminal Department, after analyzing intelligence and checking a large number of CCTVs, identified 5 members of the Bombing Party. They were suspected of providing some cheques for the syndicate for deception, and even showed up at the subway station to hand over the property to the victim, suspected of committing the crime. Arrested for obtaining property by deception.
Arrested 5 members (aged 29 to 52) of the Bulletin Party, who reported working as businessmen, accountants, hair stylists and unemployed, etc. The police detected a total of 8 similar cases, which occurred from September last year to April this year. The amount involved is more than 880,000 yuan.
Wan Chai Police District lost $1 billion in technology crime last year
In terms of crime trends, Chan King-lok, head of the Criminal Intelligence Unit of Wan Chai Police District, said that Wan Chai Police District recorded a total of 758 deception cases last year, ranking first in the overall crime list.
Most of them were computer technology crimes, accounting for 63%, with 478 cases, with a total loss of $1 billion to the victims.
Among the computer technology crimes, online shopping scams accounted for 45% of the total, with 217 cases, with a total loss of 2.4 million yuan to the victims; other common scams include online romance scams, assisted dating scams and email scams Wait.
Because the victims of email scams are often large-scale companies, the losses are generally higher. Last year, the average loss of email scams in Wan Chai Police District was 365,000 yuan, which was several times higher than the losses caused by their fraudulent methods.
