Love scammers trick 20 Hongkongers out of HK$12 million, police urge caution

Twenty Hongkongers have lost more than HK$12 million (US$1.5 million) to love scammers in a single week, prompting police to remind residents to be cautious while making new friends online.

In an alert on their CyberDefender Facebook page, police said on Friday fraudsters were playing on people’s emotions by fabricating stories to cheat them out of money under various pretexts.

According to police, 20 reports of online romance scams were made over the past week, involving financial losses exceeding HK$12 million.

“Some of the victims feel embarrassed and choose not to report the fraud,” the force said.

Police earlier warned that a “significant number of men” had fallen victim to love scammers in August and urged people to be cautious when meeting new friends online, especially if “the conversation involves money”.

Contrary to the common assumption that mostly woman fall for romance scam, recent data has revealed that men account for 35 per cent of the total number of victims in August, according to the cybersecurity and technology crime bureau.

On September 16, officers arrested 11 people in a crackdown on a fraud syndicate that swindled 99 men out of more than HK$20 million in online romance scams in the past nine months. The victims included well-educated professionals such as a doctor, an engineer and a teacher.