From street con-artists to phone fraud: A history of Hong Kong scams ... and how to avoid becoming another victim
As Hong Kong suffers from a wave of telephone fraud that has netted swindlers more than HK$126 million, a look back at a history of scams in the city - from the “holy man” and “magic” herbalist street conmen to the mystery cigarette smoke that leaves unsuspecting victims delirious as their wallets are emptied.
Duped, tricked or just plain cheated, in the city where money is king and they call Li Ka-shing – the man with the most of it – “Superman”, it’s hardly surprising that people will do, and believe in, almost anything for cash.
Over the years Hong Kong has seen them all, from the “holy man” and “magic” herbalist street conmen, whose targets were the elderly and unsure, to the mystery cigarette smoke that leaves unsuspecting victims delirious as their wallets are emptied.
As is the way with scams, the conmen are always one step ahead of the law, and as the sheen comes off the mainland Chinese economic miracle and life savings are wiped-out by stock market uncertainty, the lure of lucre-rich Hong Kong – and the ease of communication in the internet age has seen the traditional rackets morph into something much more untouchable and anonymous.
Highly organised criminals are thought to be behind the recent wave of cross-border telephone scams – the biggest single victim of which, veteran Chinese soprano Li Yuanrong, 73, it emerged on Monday, had been duped out of HK$20 million by telephone tricksters pretending to be mainland law enforcers.
In the past, racketeers travelled to the city to look for their targets – mostly the elderly – on the street, but now they work outside Hong Kong, disconnected and hard to find.
And as the old street deceptions decline, new technology and hunger for hard cash fuelled by a mainland behemoth more money focused than it has ever been, telephone con artists cheated Hongkongers out of HK$126 million in 308 cases last month alone.