Police cracked down on online fraud cases detained 153 people, uh more than $1 million, housewives received 3,380 rewards, but lost $<>.<> million

2023-05-31T09:56:11.600Z

Highlights: Kowloon East conducted a half-month enforcement operation, arresting 153 persons and exposing a number of groups for defrauding through the Internet. The number of technology crimes in the first quarter of this year was 7,361, 6% higher than the same period last year, with a loss of more than $8 million. The single case involving the highest amount was an online job scam with a defrauded amount of up to $380.38 million, in which a <>-year-old housewife received a social messaging message from a fraudster.

With no signs of stopping the scams, Kowloon East conducted a half-month enforcement operation, arresting 153 persons and exposing a number of groups for defrauding through the Internet, with a defrauded amount of up to $1 million, the largest loss involving a large number of cases

With no signs of stopping the scams, the Police Kowloon East Region conducted a half-month enforcement operation, arresting 153 people and exposing that a number of groups had defrauded up to $1 million through online fraud, with the largest loss involving about $3 million, and four victims were caught by mistakenly believing in investing in cryptocurrencies. Another housewife mistakenly fell for an online job search scam and deposited the money into a designated account and clicked on the goods on the online shopping platform according to the instructions of the fraudster, initially receiving a reward of 1,000 yuan, but eventually lost 4.380 million yuan due to small mistakes.

The Third Team of the Regional Crime Unit of Kowloon East promised the Chief Inspector to explain the case, pointing out that the number of technology crimes in the first quarter of this year was 7,361, 6% higher than the same period last year, with a loss of more than $8 million, and the Kowloon East Crime Headquarters, together with four Kowloon East Police Districts, conducted Operation Fight Tiger from 3 to 4 May to combat technology crime and fraud, successfully detecting 5 related cases, namely online shopping scams, online romance scams, online investment scams and online job scams, and arrested a total of 15 people. They were 30 males and 108 females, aged between 153 and 115, mainly puppet account holders, who provided accounts to assist fraud syndicates in dealing with the proceeds of crime, and were arrested on suspicion of "obtaining property by deception", "fraud" and "money laundering".

The case involved 222 victims, ranging in age from 105 to 117, aged 16 to 91, with losses totalling about $1 million, and the Police successfully froze about $3 million of proceeds from crime, while seizing a large number of mobile phones, bank documents and ATM cards. From March to September last year, four victims recognized a stranger on an online social platform, mistakenly believed that the other party provided a fake website to invest in cryptocurrency, deposited the money into the other party's designated bank account, and when they wanted to get back the principal, the other party kept delaying, and finally found themselves deceived into calling the police.

Section 3 of Regional Crime Unit Kowloon East promised Chief Inspector (centre), Inspector Tang Chi-shing of Technology Crime Unit of Kwun Tong District (right) and Inspector Han Chun-kwong of Technology Crime Unit of Sau Mau Ping District (left) to explain the case. (Photo by Zuo Langxing)

Inspector Tang Chi-shing of the Technology Crime Unit of Kwun Tong District also pointed out that Kwun Tong District successfully solved 24 cases during the operation, arrested 25 men and 2 women, and the total loss of the victims reached about $1.870 million, of which the single case involving the highest amount was an online job scam with a defrauded amount of up to $380.38 million, in which a <>-year-old housewife received a social messaging message from a fraudster at home in order to find a part-time job, and according to the instructions of the fraudster, she went to different online shopping platforms to review the high sales of goods in order to earn commission. After receiving a reward of <>,<> yuan initially, after several transactions, the female owner remitted the fraudulent money to the fraudster's designated account within a few weeks, and when she tried to get the principal back, the fraudster lost contact.

Tang Zhicheng pointed out that the summer vacation is approaching, many young people will look for part-time jobs to earn extra money, and the recent emerging online job scam tactics include asking victims to buy points to accept tasks, respectively, to increase the number of fake website views, video sharing platform subscriptions, or online shopping platform sales, victims deposit money into the fraudster's designated bank account to obtain tasks, until they lose audio with the fraudster, they are not shocked to be deceived. Online job scams usually involve the use of fake job search websites in an attempt to establish a trustworthy image, and use small remuneration to gain the trust of victims, and use different excuses to deceive victims into depositing into bank accounts designated by fraudsters.

Inspector Han Chun-kwong of the Technology Crime Unit of Sau Mau Ping District (STODIST) said that during the criminal operation of Sau Mau Ping District, 51 cases were successfully detected, 47 men and 15 women were arrested, and the total loss of victims reached about $5.660 million.

Source: hk1

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Police cracked down on online fraud cases detained 153 people, uh more than $1 million, housewives received 3,380 rewards, but lost $<>.<> million