Hong Kong housewife becomes biggest phone scam victim this year after HK$10 million taken from account
Discovery Bay resident reports loss after police issue warnings about people claiming to be mainland Chinese police officers
A 42-year-old Hong Kong housewife has become the biggest phone deception loser this year as she was conned out of more than HK$10 million by scammers posing as mainland police officers.
Her case emerged after 11 people were scammed out of HK$12.4 million over the four-day Easter holiday and amid repeated police warnings about phone scams.
The Discovery Bay resident, surnamed Lee, reported the case to the police at 11am on Wednesday.
A con man called the woman claiming to be a Shanghai police officer and accused her of committing a criminal offence in mainland China.
Lee was ordered to open a bank account across the border and transferred HK$10.3 million to it for what she thought were investigation purposes.
“She passed the password to the scammers who later took all her money from her account,” a police insider said. “She told us she had never heard of telephone deception cases.”