Hong Kong police arrest five in two separate fraud cases involving HK$2.4 million
- Two men and a woman held on suspicion of impersonating bank agents and tricking victims into thinking their loans were illegal or in breach of contract
- In a separate case, officers detain man, 29, and woman, 25, after they scammed convenience stores out of 93 stored value cards
Two men and a woman, all from mainland China, were arrested on Friday on suspicion of impersonating bank agents and tricking their victims into thinking their home equity loans were illegal or in breach of contract.
“Because the scammers were able to provide very accurate information and had renovated their office to look like a lawyer’s office, they were able to earn their victims’ trust,” Tai Cheuk-yin from the Yau Tsim district crime squad said on Sunday.
They convinced victims to borrow large sums through an intermediary agency and told them to deposit the money in a separate bank account after the loans were approved. The scammers then transferred the money to another account, he said.
The three were core members of the scam ring and some had links to triads, police said. Officers were able to retrieve a HK$1.57 million (US$201,282) deposit made by one of the victims.
