A 30-year-old data collector, together with his family and his girlfriend, falsely claimed to be playing a newly launched mobile app, tricked three colleagues into taking selfies, and then stole their documents with personal information, successfully applied for a virtual bank account, and defrauded 180 million loan.
After receiving the report, the police arrested the mastermind and three accomplices.
Inspector Mai Haiwen of the Technology Crime Team of Tsuen Wan Police District explained the case, saying that in July last year, three victims reported that they were falsely identified by criminals to open accounts and apply for loans in virtual banks, involving a sum of 1.8 million yuan.
After investigation, the police arrested a 30-year-old man in Wong Tai Sin in August last year. He was the mastermind of the case. As of yesterday, two women (26 to 29 years old) were arrested in Wong Tai Sin and Yuen Long. They are the family members of the male suspect. and girlfriend.
Gangster deception 4-part.
(Photo by Cai Zhengbang)
Mai Haiwen continued that there are four steps for the mastermind to commit crimes. First, arrange for family members and girlfriends to open accounts in virtual banks to understand the account opening process, including the documents that need to be submitted for authentication procedures; Successfully passed the authentication requirements of the virtual bank, stole the victim's ID card, bank documents and tax documents and uploaded them to the program; then used the personal information of the three victims, together with the information of two accomplices, to open a total of five A virtual bank account successfully defrauded a total of 1.8 million yuan in payment for goods; in the end, the money was transferred to the accounts of the mastermind and two accomplices for money laundering.
Mai Haiwen specifically pointed out that to apply for a virtual bank account, it is necessary to take photos of ID cards and conduct face recognition.
The mastermind works as a data collector in a non-profit organization, and the two male and female victims (38 to 39 years old) are his colleagues.
He falsely claimed to the victim that he tried a new mobile application that could change his face in an interesting way, luring the victim to provide a selfie.
Then, during work, without the victim's awareness, they stole their ID cards, bank documents, etc.
The loan of 1.8 million yuan was approved in five batches, ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 yuan. The police are still investigating the whereabouts of the fraudulent funds. As for whether the victim should bear the loan, the police said that they need to learn more.
The male suspect was suspected of fraud and was released on bail when he was arrested last year. The police arrested him again yesterday on suspicion of "handling property known or believed to represent proceeds from an indictable crime." Two female suspects were arrested on suspicion of money laundering. During the operation, officers seized a number of mobile phones and a batch of bank documents and other exhibits.
The source said that the case was revealed because one of the victims was planning to buy a car, but when he wanted to know the loan record, he found that he had a large amount of debt; the other two victims received documents sent by virtual banks and felt suspicious.
Before the police arrested the suspect, he had been working with the victims in the agency and paid a small amount of money to avoid detection.
Chief Criminal Inspector Shi Guanghong of the Tsuen Wan Police District pointed out that with the continuous innovation of technology, virtual banks have been established one after another, but citizens may not have sufficient understanding of the operation of banks, and there are opportunities for scammers to take advantage of them.
He reminded the public to carefully protect and handle personal data, including identity cards, bank documents and tax receipts.
At the same time, providing portraits and videos can open accounts and borrow money, and citizens must also be careful of being stolen.
He urged members of the public to call the police anti-fraud hotline 18222 if they suspect they have been scammed.
The Police reiterated that "money laundering" is a serious crime. Members of the public should not open bank accounts for others to use or lend their bank accounts to others for illegal purposes.
According to the laws of Hong Kong, anyone who knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that a certain property handles the property in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, for the proceeds of crime is guilty of the crime of "money laundering"; once convicted, the maximum penalty A fine of $5 million and imprisonment for 14 years.
