Clifford Lo, 21 June 2021
The amount of money that victims of romance scams lost to criminals jumped 140 per cent in the first four months of the year and reached HK$196 million (US$25.24 million), Hong Kong police revealed on Monday.
Authorities warned the public to remain cautious when seeking out new partners on the internet, noting more people were falling for the deceptions. The force said 517 people succumbed to the ploys between January and April, compared with 267 during the same four months in 2020 – an increase of 93 per cent.
Scammers typically posed as professionals such as engineers or entrepreneurs and looked for targets on internet platforms, according to Senior Inspector Tang Kwok-hin of the commercial crime bureau. “After they developed close relationships with their targets, they then requested the victims to make money transfers under various pretexts,” Tang said.
The figures were revealed when police announced details of an operation against a money-laundering syndicate that resulted in the arrest of 14 people and the seizure of HK$1.5 million.
Superintendent Lau Kai-pang of the same bureau said the gang used 21 bank accounts to launder HK$12 million cheated from 30 victims of online romance scams over the past six months.
