90-year-old woman in Hongkong loses 1 Billion THB in phone scam.
A 90-year-old woman in Hongkong loses 1 Billion THB to phone scammer. The local police reveal this is the largest amount of money ever lost to a phone scam in Hong Kong. The local police reported on 20 April 2021 that a 90-year-old woman in Hong Kong was scammed of 250 Million Hongkong Dollar, or about 1 Billion THB. The scammers claimed they were authorities from mainland China. The police stated scammers usually chose victims who were female, retired, and live in the Peak. A rich residential area in Hong Kong.
The scam started in the middle of last year when the victim received a call from one of the scammers. The person claimed to be an officer in mainland China. The scammer stated the victim’s name was used to commit a serious crime in China. In order to stop the prosecution process, she needed to send funds to different official government accounts as security. The funds will be used to investigate the issue and officials will visit her home.
A few days after the call, a person really did visit her. The person handed the victim a phone and sim card. On the phone was another officer who further persuaded her to transfer money into 11 different accounts. Over a period of 5 months the woman transferred 250 Million Hong Kong Dollars into other accounts, this is over 1 Billion THB. The victim believed she was tied to a money-laundering case and she continued sending large amounts of money to a long list of bank accounts. The woman believed this was all to help clear her name.
Police were finally notified of the scam going on, after the victim’s caretaker realized something was not right. The caretaker informed the woman’s daughter of the story and the large money transfers. The daughter contacted the police, the victim was informed that it was all an extravagant story. A 19-year-old student was arrested connected to the case but is now released on bail. Many of the world’s billionaires live in Hong Kong with many of them retired. For this reason, even more scammers focus on finding victims from Hong Kong.
FB Caption: The victim continued transferring large amounts of money to the scammers over a period of 5 months.
Source: Sanook
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