Hong Kong police arrest 139 linked to fraud syndicates, ‘mule accounts’
Latest crackdown targets those linked to criminal groups believed to have duped victims out of more than HK$130 million using various scams
Hong Kong police have arrested 139 people in connection with fraud syndicates running investment, dating and shopping scams, among other activities, that resulted in losses of more than HK$130 million (US$16.8 million).
The force said on Friday that a businesswoman in her fifties suffered the single largest loss among the cases linked to the recent arrests. She was tricked into transferring HK$33 million across 40 transactions to “mule accounts” operated by scammers.
The term refers to bank accounts suspected of being sold or rented out for laundering crime proceeds.
Police arrested 100 men and 39 women, aged 19 to 73, in the crackdown. The suspects included people working as domestic helpers, waiters and renovators.
Senior Inspector Wong Yuen-yan, of the Kowloon West regional technology and financial crime unit, said the police operation ran from late March to early April and aimed to dismantle networks providing mule accounts to fraud syndicates.
“The fraud syndicates have multilayered structures, and police have been dealing these criminals a blow at different levels,” she said.