Why blessing scams in Hong Kong are on the rise – and how to spot them
The number of reported cases has increased dramatically since 2016, with fraudsters targeting the elderly and robbing millions in cash and valuables
Blessing scams – in which small groups of fraudsters take advantage of elderly citizens, promising blessings of protection and, in the process, ridding the mark of their valuables – have provided mostly mainland criminal gangs with easy pickings in Hong Kong for two decades, and their frequency is rising alarmingly: the number of reported cases leapt more than seven-fold from 2016 to 2017.
Police figures provided to Post Magazine show that the number of reported cases shot up from eight cases involving HK$540,000 in 2016 to 57 cases and the loss of HK$7.09 million in cash and valuables last year.
In the first two months of 2018 (the most recent months for which data is available), there were eight cases involving losses of HK$1.08 million.
Since 2012, such scams have seen victims fleeced out of more than HK$19.5 million in cash and valuables in 170 cases reported to police. Real losses are believed to be substantially higher as many of the mostly elderly victims are too ashamed and embarrassed to report offences.
Blessing scams first surfaced in Hong Kong at around the turn of the millennium. In 2001, more than 300 elderly people were cheated out of HK$22 million. In 2004, victims suffered losses of more than HK$20 million.