From October 28 to November 8 this year, Hong Kong Island Police launched a 12-day anti-fraud and money laundering“Cloud-piercing” operation, so far 126 people have been arrested, including the youngest 14-year-old. They were involved in 110 cases involving fake officials, investment, job hunting and online shopping scams.
According to a report in the November 10 Sing Tao Daily, the 325 victims, aged between 18 and 86, were from all walks of life, according to Zhu Wantian, Senior Inspector of the technology and Wealth Crime Division of Hong Kong Island, the 126 arrested persons claimed to be decoration workers, transport workers and cleaning workers. They were suspected of“Obtaining property by deception”, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and inciting others to commit money laundering offences. Dai Yinghui, senior inspector of the Office of crime prevention, particularly mentioned that in addition to the common cases of fake customer service and investment fraud, in the two months since school started in September, hong Kong Island alone has recorded a total of 55 cases of mainland students coming to Hong Kong by mistake and impersonating officials, with a total loss of HK $39 million. The largest loss in a single case is HK $3.5 million.
One of the victims, 18-year-old Ah Chung (not his real name) in the 9 police press conference appeared to say. He said he had received a video call in early October claiming to be a Dongguan public security officer in Guangdong Province, claiming that he was involved in a criminal case and had been restricted from entering and leaving Hong Kong, requiring him to report to them daily by phone and follow instructions to prove his innocence. A Cong then saw the other party forged the so-called“Arrest warrant” and“Indictment”, as well as wearing a police uniform, they believed it. The scammer asked him to move to different hotels to hide, and to take photos of him being imprisoned and videos of him begging for mercy as“Investigation” purposes. He was also ordered to hand over his wechat account and password to ensure his own security, and cut off communication with the outside world, also can not tell the matter to relatives and friends. In the meantime, although some roommates warned him that it might be a trap, but since the other party has not asked him to pay any money, Ah Cong was convinced.
He was then asked to bring his own food and daily necessities and go to the outskirts of Sai Kung to hide for a few days to co-operate with the so-called“Operation Close the net”. During this period, the swindler used his wechat account to send Ah’s father photos of his son being imprisoned and videos of him begging for mercy, extorting HK $6 million. Ah Chung’s parents were very scared, but they also realized that it might be a scam, so they entrusted a relative in Hong Kong to call the police, and immediately went to Hong Kong to contact the police. In the end, they rescued their son in time within 48 hours. Ah Chung was safe and sound, no money was lost. Reported that cheaters and Ah Cong in just three weeks there is no offline contact, the case is still under investigation.
The Senior Inspector of the Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong Island, Lai King-yiu, who was in charge of the investigation, said that Ah Chung did not have many friends in Hong Kong when he first came to Hong Kong, and that he had stopped communicating with the outside world. When he left the hostel, he left quietly, making it much more difficult to locate him. The police went to more than a few hotels in Hong Kong and Kowloon to investigate. They searched through hundreds of CCTV footage and finally found that the background of one of the hotel rooms matched that of the room where the victim was in the distress video, the investigation began to take shape. Police then The Silkworm the CCTV footage and finally found the footage of Ah Chung taking a taxi to the Yellowstone Pier, which eventually rescued him.
Hong Kong media reported Thursday that 325 victims were involved in a cloud-piercing operation with losses of more than HK $570 million. The most costly case involved a 77-year-old retiree who mistakenly believed a fraudster claiming to be a mainland official and gave his bank account and password to the fraudster to clear his name, the HK $59m in life savings was eventually transferred from the account. Hong Kong media said that the scammers are emerging one after another, targeting“Hong Kong drifters” unfamiliar with the psychological weakness of life, and even at the expense of forging arrest orders, uniforms and other props, making each other fall into a trap.
Ms Dai again warned that mainland officials would not call Hong Kong residents. Like the so-called uniform in the case, the arrest warrant, etc. , the purpose is to make people believe, deeper. And the best way to intercept swindlers is to reject all strange calls, “When received strange calls, must remain calm.”.