Hong Kong businesswoman, 70, loses HK$258 million in phone scam; police arrest 10 suspects

Police have frozen bank accounts containing more than HK$1.5 million in connection with the case, but phone scammers had made off with the rest.

Acting Chief Inspector Lo Chun-kong of the New Territories North technology and financial crime squad revealed on Friday that the victim was an elderly businesswoman in Hong Kong.

The alleged fraudsters played different roles and impersonated various mainland officials over the nearly two-year period to make the scam more believable and trick the victim into think she had accidentally committed money laundering, he said.

According to the force, the woman got a phone call from a fraudster who claimed to be a mainland law enforcement official in February 2022, who accused her of being involved in a money laundering case.

The acting chief inspector said she was informed that she would face arrest and prosecution if she refused to cooperate in the investigation.

“To prove her innocence, she told the ‘official’ that she was willing to cooperate and help with the investigation,” Lo said.

The woman was then instructed to set up six bank accounts and transfer her money into the accounts for investigative purposes.

After setting up the six accounts, Lo said the businesswoman was asked to download a mobile phone app and also tricked into revealing the six account details and related passwords through the app.

“She was promised that all the money would be given back to her after the asset assessment,” he said.

The victim transferred HK$258 million into the six accounts over a period of 23 months.

In January this year, one of the scammers telephoned her to arrange a meeting with her outside a bank with the promise of returning her money.

The businesswoman realised she had been tricked out of the money when the phoney official did not turn up for the meeting and she found the six accounts empty. She then called police.

Lo said the investigation revealed that the money was transferred into 44 other bank accounts in the city before being withdrawn.

He said the case was the tip of an iceberg and police took all cases into account and had spared no effort in investigating each report.

The number of phone scam cases dropped in the first quarter compared with the same period last year although losses quadrupled to HK$789 million.