A male former civil servant who retired last month met a woman who claimed to be from Singapore and worked as an IT technician through the social networking site Facebook last year.
The couple continued to communicate on WhatsApp, and the woman claimed to have inside information and persuaded the man to invest in virtual currency.
The male victim transferred 51 times a total of about 14.34 million yuan to 35 bank accounts designated by the other party.
However, the relevant online investment platform was shut down later, and the female netizen even blocked her Facebook and WhatsApp. The male victim began to feel cheated, so he called the police for help.
The male victim is 60 years old and retired last month. He was a civil servant before retirement.
He received an invitation from a friend on Facebook in July last year. The other party claimed to be an IT technician in Singapore and had inside information about investing in cryptocurrencies to ensure a good return on investment.
The two later switched to Whatsapp to continue the conversation. The female netizen introduced the male subject to open an account to invest in cryptocurrency on a fake investment trading website.
During the period from July 30, 2022 to December 31, 2022, the male victim made 51 remittances to 35 bank accounts provided by the scammers, involving a total amount of about 14.34 million Hong Kong dollars.
Until January this year, when the male victim tried to log in to the website, he found that his account had been frozen, and he was required to pay an administrative fee to get it back.
He ignored it, but when he connected to the website again this month, he found that the website had stopped functioning, and the female netizen had blocked him from Facebook and Whatsapp. He felt cheated and called the police for help.
After a preliminary investigation by the police, the case was listed as obtaining property by deception, and it was handed over to the fourth team of the Criminal Investigation Team of the Border Police District for follow-up. No one has been arrested yet.
The police reiterated that anyone who commits the crime of "obtaining property by deception" under Section 12 of the Theft Ordinance, Chapter 210 of the Laws of Hong Kong, is liable to a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.