90-Year-Old Woman Conned Out Of $32 Million In Hong Kong’s Biggest Phone Scam

A 90-year-old Hong Kong girl has been conned out of US$32million by fraudsters posing as Chinese officers, police stated, within the metropolis’s greatest recorded telephone rip-off.

Hong Kong’s aged are suffering from telephone scammers who search out weak and rich victims prepared to switch cash or make bogus investments.

Police on Tuesday stated scammers focused an aged girl residing in a mansion on The Peak, Hong Kong’s ritziest neighbourhood.

Last summer time criminals contacted the unnamed girl pretending to be Chinese public safety officers. They claimed her id had been utilized in a severe felony case in mainland China.

She was informed she wanted to switch cash from her checking account into ones held by the investigation crew for safekeeping and scrutiny, the South China Morning Post reported, citing police sources.

Police stated a number of days later an individual arrived at her home with a devoted cell phone and SIM card to speak with the pretend safety brokers who persuaded her to make a complete of 11 financial institution transfers.

Over 5 months the aged woman gave a complete of HK$250 million ($32 million) to the scammers, the biggest sum recorded but by a telephone con.

Police stated the rip-off was solely noticed as a result of the aged woman’s home helper thought one thing suspicious was taking place and contacted her employer’s daughter who then alerted officers.

After an investigation a 19-year-old was arrested for fraud and has been launched on bail, police stated. 

The South China Morning Post reported that the arrested particular person is believed to have been the fraudster who turned up on the woman’s home with the telephone.

Wealthy Hong Kong is likely one of the most unequal locations on earth. 

It boasts one of many highest concentrations of billionaires, a lot of whom dwell in palatial houses overlooking densely packed districts the place poor households would possibly squeeze into an residence the dimensions of an American automobile parking house.

With such a excessive focus of rich aged residents, the town makes a ripe goal for telephone scammers, a lot of whom function throughout the border in mainland China.

Police say such scams are on the rise. 

Reports of telephone scams rose 18 per cent within the first quarter of 2021 with fraudsters pocketing some HK$350 million over the interval.

In 2020, police stated they dealt with 1,193 telephone rip-off circumstances the place a complete of HK$574 million was stolen.

Last 12 months a 65-year-old girl was duped out of HK$68.9 million after an analogous scheme the place folks posed as mainland safety officers.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)

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