Chinanews.com, Hong Kong, April 20 (Reporter Han Xingtong) A 90-year-old rich woman living on the top of the hill on Hong Kong Island received a call from the "Mainland Public Security" last year, suspecting that her identity had been misappropriated and was involved in a serious case in the Mainland. The deposit needs to be transferred to the scammer to verify whether "black money" is involved.
When the rich woman heard about fraud, she immediately cooperated with the "investigation" and followed the instructions. In 5 months, she transferred more than 10 times, and was deceived about 250 million yuan in total.
This is the single highest amount of phone fraud in Hong Kong's history.
"Fake police" calls swept away huge sums of money
According to Hong Kong media reports, the victim was a 90-year-old retired woman living in a detached house on the top of the hill on Hong Kong Island, living with a foreign driver and two domestic helpers.
In August last year, the victim received a call from a self-proclaimed "Mainland official", saying that she suspected that her identity had been stolen. This involved a serious case in the Mainland. She needed to check whether her bank account was involved in "dark money" as an excuse. Asked her to transfer the deposit to a designated account, and promised to return it in May of this year after the inspection is completed.
If at this moment the victim is still hesitating between panic and suspicion, after a few days, another person who claimed to be a "Mainland Police" arrived at her home directly and accurately stated her personal information, including her name and ID card. She has never heard of a similar phone fraud. The victim immediately believed in the identity of the other party's "Mainland Public Security", and in order to "self-certify innocence", she began to follow the instructions of the "Public Security" and obeyed all the instructions. Commanded.
The fake "Public Security" gave her a phone with a SIM card for contact, and on August 12 last year instructed her to deposit 7.9 million yuan into the fraudster's account.
Later, from August 13th last year to January 4th this year, the victim successively deposited about 247 million yuan into the fraudster’s two bank accounts in 10 times according to the fraudster’s instructions. In just 5 months It was defrauded of about 250 million yuan, setting the highest loss amount in a single phone scam in Hong Kong in history.
The domestic helper first noticed something was wrong
In 5 months, the old woman transferred money 11 times, and the fraudster showed up boldly. One of the transfers was when the victim instructed a private driver to pick her up and go to the bank in Central to complete the transfer process with the fraudster.
The repeated huge transfers aroused the attention and suspicion of the bank staff. The staff asked the victim about the reason and purpose of the remittance, and the victim used the excuse of "purchasing a mountaintop property".
Upon hearing this, the staff felt that it made sense, so they did not follow up.
It was the victim's domestic helper who first noticed that something was wrong, so he quickly called the victim's daughter to tell him what was suspicious.
Surprisingly, although the daughter found something strange after learning about it, she did not ask her mother or call the police in real time. Instead, she asked relatives to follow her mother to observe what she was doing after she got to the bank and what her purpose was, so she went back and forth. Delays have not been able to stop the frequent transfers of "arrows on the string".
The matter was delayed until March 2 this year, when the daughter persuaded her mother to report to the police accompanied by a lawyer.
The arrested college student argued that the victim was solicited to commit the crime
In response to China News Agency’s enquiry, the Hong Kong police stated that after in-depth investigations, the Second Squad of the Central District Police District arrested a 19-year-old non-Chinese man surnamed Huang in Tin Shui Wai on suspicion of “deceiving Means to obtain property".
He has been released on bail pending further investigation and must report to the police in late April.
The case is still under investigation, and it is not ruled out that more people have been arrested.
It is understood that this man is a first-year student of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was also the person who called himself "Mainland Public Security" and was responsible for providing mobile phones to the victim to facilitate her contact with the party.
After being arrested, the boy argued that he was actually a victim of a phone scam. He was later recruited to commit the crime and received false "public security" instructions.
The police have frozen more than 9 million yuan in the accounts of fraudsters.
Electric fraud cases have increased significantly in recent years, and the amount of losses has almost tripled
The Hong Kong police said that there was a clear upward trend in phone scams in Hong Kong last year. The number of related cases rose from 648 in 2019 to 1,193 in 2020, an increase of more than 80%.
The amount of losses during the same period rose from about 150 million yuan to about 570 million yuan, an increase of nearly three times.
In the first quarter of 2020, 169 telephone fraud cases were recorded, involving approximately 54 million yuan.
In the first quarter of 2021, 200 telephone fraud cases were recorded, involving approximately 353 million yuan.
The police mentioned that in phone fraud cases, "fake officials" is a common method, which often accounts for more than 50% of the total number of cases, and the losses caused can reach 90%.
He took last year as an example, the annual loss of phone fraud was about 575 million yuan, of which the fraud of "fake officials" amounted to 550 million yuan.
A police officer in charge of the above-mentioned case said that this case reflects the importance of caring for the elders in the family. "If the family asks more questions and cares about the victim, it is possible to prevent this deception."