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Hong Kong police arrest 67 over stooge accounts for money laundering, warn criminals recruiting more domestic helpers, other non-locals
- Police warn that non-ethnic-Chinese residents are increasingly being targeted by criminal syndicates to share bank account details
- Some domestic helpers are acting as middlemen for scammers, recruiting people who are given HK$1,000 to HK$2,000 for their accounts, police say
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Hong Kong police have rounded up 67 people suspected to have sold their virtual bank accounts to a money-laundering syndicate, warning that criminals are targeting more domestic helpers and other non-local residents with rewards to hand over login details.
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Chief Inspector Wu Hoi-ling of the Kowloon East regional technology and financial crime unit revealed on Saturday that the arrests this week were part of an operation to crack down on scams linked to HK$73 million in losses for victims.
Wu said non-ethnic-Chinese residents were increasingly being targeted by criminal syndicates to share bank account details.
“Recently, the number of non-locals, especially foreign domestic workers, recruited or manipulated as stooge account holders has been rising,” she said.
Under Operation Sunlit Sky, the force arrested 35 men and 32 women, aged between 20 and 74, for allegedly sharing their accounts with a criminal syndicate for money laundering. Nineteen were of non-Chinese ethnicity.
Investigators also uncovered 52 scam cases with 108 victims and involving total losses of HK$73 million in the operation.
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