Waitress, 21, arrested after two Hong Kong teens lose HK$110,000 in phone scams
Victims received calls from ‘courier company’ and were told to hand over cash and gold
Two Hong Kong teenagers joined the ranks of the city’s many phone scam victims after being swindled out of a total of HK$110,000 (US$14,000) in cash and gold.
In two separate cases, a girl and a boy, both 15, received calls from a “courier company” on October 17 and November 21 respectively. They were subsequently transferred to someone claiming to be from the mainland police and saying that the victim had been involved in serious money-laundering cases.
The Form Four pupils were both instructed to hand money and jewellery to a woman in Mong Kok.
The girl collected about HK$50,000 in cash and the same value in gold and gave it to a woman at an appointed site in Mong Kok. The boy handed over HK$10,000 in cash to a woman in the same district.
The victims realised they might have been swindled after talking to their parents and called police on October 25 and November 26.
Hong Kong student arrested in connection with HK$11.7 million phone scam
Chief Inspector Wilson Tam Wai-shun, from the Kowloon East regional headquarters, said officers subsequently located a 21-year-old woman who was suspected of being connected to both cases. The Hong Kong identity card holder, who worked as a waitress, was arrested in a residential flat in Mong Kok on Wednesday morning.
