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Telephone defrauding group pretends to be boss and asks employees to send money to companies and restaurants, out of more than 70 people, police arrest 24

2023-02-16T11:11:23.499Z


There is no sign of stopping the phone scams. Some swindlers pretended to be bosses and called restaurants, property management companies, etc., instructing employees to remit huge sums of money to designated accounts. At least 70 people were recruited and lost 3.23 million yuan. The police picked up five days in a row


There is no sign of stopping the phone scam. Some swindlers pretended to be bosses and called restaurants and property management companies, instructing employees to remit huge sums of money to designated accounts. At least 70 people were recruited and lost 3.23 million yuan.

The police took action for five consecutive days and arrested 24 people, including the mastermind and key members of a local fraud group, as well as multiple puppet accounts used to launder criminal proceeds, laundering nearly 124 million yuan in black money in the past year.


The local fraud syndicate involved in the case cheated through the method of "guess who I am".

(Photo by Chen Haoran)

Acting Senior Superintendent of the Commercial Crime Investigation Division, Chan Wai-kei, explained the circumstances of the case. The department carried out an operation code-named "Stone Steps" and successfully locked 54 suspicious puppet bank accounts throughout the operation. , the department arrested 24 people on suspicion of "conspiracy to defraud" and "money laundering", frozen bank funds of 2 million yuan, seized cash and luxury watches, with a total value of 1 million yuan, and some arrested account holders reported that they received several hundred Remuneration up to several thousand yuan.

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The entire operation is divided into two parts, including a local criminal group that manipulated 33 bank accounts. Senior Inspector Lu Hongji of the Commercial Crime Investigation Bureau pointed out that the department discovered that a local fraud group started operating in July last year. Defrauding by means of calling restaurants, restaurants, retailers, and property management companies using stored-value phone cards commonly known as "space cards", pretending to be the boss or management of the company, falsely claiming to employees that the company needs cash flow, or that you need money assistance, Then the employees were asked to deposit the money into the designated bank account. The victim's loss ranged from 2,500 yuan to 200,000 yuan. The biggest loss was a 34-year-old restaurant employee.

After completing the counting, the mastermind and core members withdraw the fraudulent money in cash through the teller machine within a very short time. The victims did not know that they were deceived until they lost contact with the scammer or the real boss or management showed up. At least 70 people were recruited and lost money. 3.23 million yuan.

13 members of the group were arrested, including the mastermind, core members and account holders

After intelligence analysis and in-depth investigation, the police identified the identity of the group, and made arrests in Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories from last Saturday (11th) to yesterday (15th). Eight men and five women were involved in the case, aged between 23 and 65. One mastermind and backbone members, and the rest are puppet account holders. The 50-year-old mastermind has no gang background. He is responsible for purchasing "space cards", soliciting and manipulating puppet accounts, and handling fraudulent funds. The backbone members are account control and processing Defrauded money, the account holder provided the account to receive the defrauded money, the detectives seized a large number of evidence on the arrested person, private car and premises, including multiple bank cards, multiple smartphones, phone cards, bank cards, bank documents and 91,000 It is believed that this operation successfully disintegrated a local criminal group, and the operation is still going on.

11 people arrested for money laundering by providing accounts

It is understood that the backbone members of this criminal group are reported to be transport workers, and the account holders come from all walks of life, including housewives in their 60s.

The other part of the operation involved 21 household accounts. In the past year, more than 120 million yuan of criminal proceeds was laundered. The department arrested another 6 men and 5 women, aged between 25 and 75, all of whom were account holders.

Commercial Crime Bureau Acting Senior Superintendent Chan Wai-kei (middle), Senior Inspector Luk Hung-kei (right) and Chief Inspector Lai Mei-yee (left) explain the case.

(Photo by Chen Haoran)

Chief Inspector Lai Mei-yee of the Commercial Crime Investigation Division pointed out that the police received 2,831 reports of telegraphic fraud last year, one and a half times higher than the 1,140 cases in the previous year, accounting for about 10% of the total fraud cases, and the loss amounted to 1.08 billion yuan, an increase of about 3.3% over last year. .

Lai also pointed out that the situation in the second half of last year was serious. More than 70% of the cases occurred in the second half of the year. "Guess who I am" and "fake officials" were the most common. The number of cases increased to 760 in the fourth quarter. Lai reminded the public that if they receive a phone call from an unknown source, the other party claims to be a boss, colleague, relative or friend, and needs to borrow money urgently. Members of the public remit money or provide bank accounts for investigation purposes. If in doubt, please call 18222 to contact the police.

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2023-02-16

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