A fraud syndicate, suspected of impersonating a PayMe employee, falsely claimed to verify accounts and so on. The syndicate fraudulently obtained 138 victims’ account verification codes and transaction passwords, with the total amount of money involved exceeding $1.5 million. Nine men and women, who earlier pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud and 11 counts of money laundering or conspiracy to commit money laundering, were sentenced to 24 to 56 months’ imprisonment at the District Court today (December) . In sentencing, the judge said that although there was no evidence to suggest that international factors were involved in the case, it was a serious case involving the increasing prevalence of telephone deception in Hong Kong.
The nine defendants are Yu Ka-lung, so chun-kit, Yeung Ha-wai, Chin wai-ting, so chun-yuen, Li Fucheng, Lu Jiaqian, Wu Siming and Luo Jinrong, aged between 19 and 27, they were sentenced to 46 months, 35 months, 34 months, 31 months, 56 months, 52 months, 40 months, 40 months and 24 months respectively.
The defendants earlier pleaded guilty to one to five counts of money laundering or conspiracy to commit money laundering, while Law Pong Yu, Yu Ka Lung, Su Junjie and Li Fucheng pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud.
In sentencing, the judge said that the case involved a growing number of telephone scams in Hong Kong, and that the scheme involved a number of fraudsters and victims, with losses of more than $1.5 million over a period of five months. Although there is no evidence to suggest that international factors are involved, this is a serious case.
The judge further pointed out that the case had caused the public to lose confidence in online transactions. The increase in the operating costs of banks, coupled with the rise in the operating costs of consumers, had not only affected the people at the time, but also the general public, it also affects Hong Kong’s ability to compete internationally.
The judge also noted that the defendant had purchased the personal data of 50,000 people in the case, reflecting the planning of the case or more ambitious. In addition, the judge, taking into account the increasing trend of fraud and money laundering in recent years and the greater harm to society, approved the prosecution’s application for an additional sentence, increasing the sentence for some money laundering offences and conspiracy to commit money laundering offences by 25% , each defendant was sentenced to 24 to 56 months’ imprisonment.
Between January and June 2022,138 victims received calls from unknown individuals claiming to be employees of PayMe asking for identification codes, One-time password, etc. . The victims were eventually transferred from $40,000 to $40,000, resulting in losses of more than $1.5 million.
Luo Binyu said under the caution, Su Junyuan took her“Into the ER people,” Yu Jialong and others have been involved in fraud. Luo binyu also pointed out that she had purchased an account, and also with Su Junyuan purchased a trial balance with 50,000 people’s information.