Kwai Tsing Police District investigated two online dating scams and found that both victims were living in public housing. One of them was a 77-year-old mother-in-law. After she met an online scammer on Facebook, she fell into the trap of online scammers and could not extricate herself. The second transfer was 158,000 yuan to an "online lover".
Another victim, an IT man, transferred 1.48 million yuan in 33 transfers to the "female doctor" lover.
Both of them were "lovers" who lost contact with each other in recent months.
Police yesterday (21st) arrested two Filipino and Indonesian foreign domestic helpers.
The two arrested persons are suspected of providing bank accounts to scammers, and the police are still looking for the mastermind of the Internet.
The case is being followed up by the Kwai Tsing District Criminal Investigation Team.
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Public housing grandma fell er money love network to transfer money to swindlers in 9 times
According to the source, the 77-year-old woman who was defrauded of her wealth lives in a public housing estate in Kwai Chung District. She likes to use Facebook to meet new friends.
In February this year, she met a male netizen who called himself "John" on the Internet.
The other party is good at figuring out women's psychology, which makes the old woman "fall in love" and gradually fall into the trap of online dating and cheating.
After some sweet talk, the other party claimed to have sent several batches of carefully selected gifts from foreign countries to the elderly woman, but the relevant gifts were detained by customs.
Ask the old woman to transfer money to a designated bank account to pay the "customs clearance fee".
The old woman was not afraid of cheating, and transferred the money to the bank in 9 times to the bank account provided by her lover.
Since the transfer was more than 10,000 yuan each time, the bank staff had no doubts and did not remind the old woman.
It was not until nearly a month ago that the old woman had no money to transfer money, and the other party lost contact. The old woman suspected that she had been deceived and called the police for help.
Public housing IT man cheated of 1.48 million yuan for chasing "female doctor"
The other victim, a 43-year-old man, also lives in a public housing estate in Kwai Chung District.
He works in IT and makes friends on Facebook after work.
In April of this year, he married a netizen who claimed to be a female doctor, and he was "captured". The two parties even switched to WeChat and continued to talk about their "feelings".
The other party claimed to have sent two kinds of gifts, but was detained by the customs, and asked the IT man to pay the customs clearance fee if he wanted to receive the gifts.
The IT man was suspicious and fascinated, and transferred a total of 1.48 million yuan in 33 transfers to the bank account provided by the other party, but he still did not detect the fraud.
It was not until the other party lost contact recently that he felt fooled and finally called the police for help.
After investigation, the police arrested two foreign domestic helpers who held Hong Kong identity cards.
They have been released on bail pending investigation and must report to the police in late June.
During the operation, police officers seized two mobile phones.
The case is still under investigation and police cannot rule out more arrests.
The Police urge the public to be more vigilant, especially when it involves the solicitation of money and sensitive personal information.
The Police also urge employers of foreign domestic helpers to remind their domestic helpers not to open bank accounts for others to use or lend bank accounts to others for illegal purposes.
If members of the public have doubts, they may call the 24-hour hotline 18222 of the Anti-Fraud Coordination Centre of the Police Anti-Fraud Coordination Centre.