Hong Kong-listed company director, bank manager latest victims of separate phone scams
Con artists posed as government officials, accusing the victims of crimes and then demanding money, scamming them out of HK$2.5 million
The director of a Hong Kong-listed company and a bank manager from mainland China became the latest victims of phone scams in two separate cases earlier this week after losing more than HK$2.5 million to con artists posing as officers.
At about 4pm on Wednesday, the director, 49, was duped out of $1.9 million yuan (HK$2.24 million) in six hours after he received a call on his mobile phone from a woman claiming to be a Hong Kong immigration officer.
“The con artist accused the victim of breaking the law on the mainland and then the call was transferred to a man who claimed to be a police officer from Shanghai,” a police source said. “He was asked to pay money as surety.”
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As instructed, the victim transferred the total sum to two mainland bank accounts in the next few hours.
He realised it was a scam after telling his friend about it. He then made a report at Central Police Station at about 10.30pm on the same day.
On Wednesday, a mainland woman, 37, who is a bank manager, was conned out of 250,000 yuan (HK$295,000) in a similar case, police said. She had arrived in the city the day before.
